The scans of the tokens, without much/if any explanation don't make much sense to the casual reader. I'd seen a listing on Las Vegas Craig's list for these tokens a week or so ago. I kept meaning to give the pawn shop a call to see if they still had them. When I finally did call them, they indeed had not sold. I have almost no experience with pawn shops with the exception that I have stopped in a bunch of them asking if they had any casino chips. One of my best finds happened in a pawn shop in Winchester, VA 7-8 years ago. Back then I picked up a hand full of chips to include a Silver Slipper $1, a Fremont 50ยข Arodie, two International $1 and an old slot machine token. For those chips I paid a grand sum of about $11. The "book" value on them was near $600. Finds like that are few and far between.
In any case, after a few phone calls I headed out for Bargain Pawn located in the lovely locale of North Las Vegas just a block or so North of Jerry's Nugget.
If you wonder where the homeless of Las Vegas hang out/live take a drive along LV Blvd. north of downtown Las Vegas. You'll marvel at the makeshift camps. Take a blanket, attach it to chain link fence at the top and drape it outwards to form half of a tent shape. These "structures" are prominent along the sidewalks in the area. I'll not make any judgements about what/how/why these people are there, but it's a mental picture to describe where the pawn shop is located.
My first visit was a dry run. Although Brantley was able to locate the binder containing the tokens, he wasn't able to price/haggle them. I left empty handed after leaving my phone number and asking to have someone with the ability to price the damn things give me a call. The next day I received a call and I once again headed North to the picturesque beauty of North Las Vegas.
The in-the-know employee took $95 off of the sticker price and even "paid" the taxes for me.
I'm a sucker for just about any type of casino collectible. Although I never really pursued slot tokens I had managed to accumulate quite a few. This purchase basically doubled my token collection and sent me on a mission to learn more about them.
A fellow collector directed me to this
web site .
There is a wealth of information there and I spend quite a few hours cataloging my newly acquired gems. With few exceptions, slot tokens are not collected as widely as chips and the retail values of the tokens reflect the lesser demand. In any case, a large number of my new tokens are from 1965-1967 and the dates pick back up in 1979. These dates, apparently coincide with changes in the law that allowed tokens to be legally minted and the escapades of the Hunt Brothers. A large number of these tokens are in uncirculated condition. Most have a retail value of $4-$10 but there were about 3 that had significantly higher valuations.
If I didn't have enough to do keeping up with the new chip issues in Las Vegas, now I guess I'll set off in pursuit of older tokens to fill the many gaps in my token collection. The (sort of) good news is that almost NO casinos are still issuing slot tokens as the ticket-in-ticket-out technology has made actual tokens practically obsolete. At least when you collect something that is closed ended you have a prayer of acquiring a significant percentage of what is out there. As of now, chips are an open ended proposition. Who knows if that will be the case in 5-10 years. Will the dealer-less tables be commonplace then? Will CHIPS as a whole be obsolete? I'd like to think not, but technology (read greed) marches on.
