Wooden vending machine for dispensing cigarette packets, with twin columns for packets which are accessed via coin-operated pull-drawers, and lockable front panel, used - and probably made - in the UK, c.1930

Made to be placed on a counter top, bar or table, the drawers containing packets of cigarettes could be opened once a coin had been placed into the slots in the top of the box. Anyone, even children, could operate the dispenser and get cigarettes. It had been illegal since 1908 to sell tobacco products to children under 16 years of age in the United Kingdom, but vending machines such as these made it difficult to enforce the law. Today, the age limit on tobacco sales in the United Kingdom is 18, having been increased in October 2007.