~ITEM DESCRIPTION~ Here is the first, scarce set of 27 different actual ONE DOLLAR GAMING (CASINO) TOKENS, minted by the Franklin Mint in 1965. These were made to replace the actual U.S. silver dollars used in casinos until 1964.

Nevada casinos used Morgan and Peace silver dollars in their machines for many years.  They of course had an actual face value and silver-content value of $1 inside any casino or at any outside store, cost the casinos no premium for their use, and there was near zero chance of having them counterfeited.  All that changed suddenly in 1965 when circulating US coins that were being struck every year (10c, 25c, 50c) through 1964 were no longer  made of silver, but of a silvery-colored base metal alloy bonded to a copper core.  The price of silver on the open market started rising, and the old silver coins were worth more than face value when melted and sold as bullion.  Silver coins were rapidly pulled out of circulation, millions of them, hoarded or melted for a profit.  The old silver dollars held in casino vaults and banks rapidly disappeared.  Casinos were quickly forced to strike special "silver-dollar" sized tokens unique to each different casino and only useable in that casino.  You "bought" them at whatever casino you played in, and cashed them out when you left.

The private Franklin Mint was chosen by most casinos to make their tokens and the ones in this set were the first ones made, most dated 1965.  New sets were made by the Franklin Mint in each of the next few years.  Quantity of tokens produced for the 27 casinos in this 1965 set for actual gaming varied from 5,000 to 25,000.  These were "business strikes" just like in normal US coins.  Franklin Mint also made a small run of 2500 numbered sets of the 27 different tokens struck as "proof-like" using specially polished dies; having mirror surfaces and razor-sharp details, much nicer than those struck for everyday use.  They were placed in special albums- THIS IS ONE OF THEM.

Franklin used their own very special alloys for these tokens- the silver-colored ones were an alloy of copper, nickel and columbium, totally non-magnetic.  The "gold" colored ones were struck in a special Franklin Mint nickel-brass, also containing a small amount of the rare metal columbium.  The columbium alloy makes the tokens almost impossible to counterfeit.  The edge of each different token also has a unique reeding pattern so the cashier can glance at the side of a stack of these tokens to immediately spot any "foreign" tokens.  Smart.

Eighteen of the 27 tokens in this set are silver-colored, and 9 are gold-colored.  See photos below!

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~CONDITION~ Extremely fine.  These are top-grade "prooflike' strikes.  No toning or discoloration apparent. This is an expensive album which has the sliding clear plastic strips holding the coins in their cutouts.  The plastic strips are windows which also keep air out to retard any oxidation or toning.  The strip is easily pulled out to release the token for examination if you wish.


~PAYMENT, SHIPPING, PACKING MATERIALS~ As you probably know, the wise rulers of eBay have decreed that payment via PayPal must be made available for ALL items sold on eBay. PayPal will be happy to accept your credit cards and echecks. I am not allowed to list other acceptable methods of payment, but recent info on the eBay site says that if a buyer emails me wanting to pay using a method other than PayPal, (and that method is acceptable to me) they may use that method .

Shipping in the USA:  The current postage cost from Central Florida to your door will be displayed near the top of this  auction page.  Postage rates had a huge increase in January.

Foreign Shipping-  Most packages under 4 pounds (about 1700 grams) are best shipped First Class International, the cheapest possible service.  However, the  prices on all foreign shipping using FCI increased enormously to all countries in January.  International Priority, Flat-rate box and envelope prices also had huge increases.

NO RESERVE- I hate reserves, and bet you do too.

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