Nigel Booth, a veteran of over 45 years in the coin machine industry, died in hospital on Monday of last week after a short illness. He was 75.
He had a long career in the British coin machine industry, but with very few companies, notably Phonographic (later Associated Leisure), London Coin and latterly Electrocoin.
Booth had connections with the business all of his life as his family worked in the Samson Novelty Company in the years between the two World Wars. His father, George Booth, was a founder member and a chairman of the old ACA and BAMOS trade associations, the forerunners of today’s BACTA. The family company ran a business on Blackpool Pleasure Beach.
After a brief period in the Royal Navy, Booth became a salesman for a cash register company in 1956, rising to sales manager. In 1963 he started a coin machine operation in Kent but joined Phonographic a year later on the sales staff. He left briefly in 1966, returning a year later to become assistant to Michael Green.
Nigel joined London Coin as sales manager in 1970 and became joint sales director in 1974, returning to Phonographic (which had since become Associated Leisure) as assistant managing director in 1978. He left in 1981 but remained a consultant. He later joined John Stergides at Electrocoin.
The funeral is on Monday, August 11 at 2:20pm at Worthing Crematorium, Horsham Road, Findon, West Sussex BN14 0RQ, England, and afterwards at The Roundabout Hotel, Monkmead Lane, West Chiltington, West Sussex.
Family flowers only, and donations in lieu to the British Heart Foundation via the funeral directors: HD Tribe, 19 West Street, Storrington, West Sussex RH20 4DZ, +44 (0)1903 740 936.
