1885 O Silver Morgan Dollar NGC  "Binion Collection" Pedigree Binion Hoard Uncirculated

Mob History

Nice worn look on this one.

These are indeed interesting peace dollars. Las Vegas history and quite the story.

   " The Binion Hoard was American gambling executive Ted Binion's collection of silver and silver dollars. Binion had a safe installed 12 ft (3.7 m) deep in the ground of a vacant lot that he owned in Pahrump, Nevada, United States. In the safe he stored his 46,000 pounds (21,000 kg) of silver, including 135,000 silver dollars. In 1998, Binion died of an overdose and authorities determined that he had been murdered. Two days after his death Richard Tabish and four other people were arrested for digging up the buried silver.

  After an investigation into Binion's death, his girlfriend Sandy Murphy and her purported lover Richard Tabish were arrested and convicted of his murder: they were also charged in the theft of his silver. Four other people were also arrested and charged with grand larceny and burglary for helping Richard Tabish enter the safe and take the silver from Binion's property. The murder convictions of Murphy and Tabish were overturned by the Nevada Supreme Court in 2003, and a new trial in 2004 resulted in their acquittals on the murder charge. All six were subsequently convicted of grand larceny and burglary for taking the silver.

   In 2001 the Ted Binion estate sold the silver coins. Spectrum Numismatic International purchased the entire collection of silver dollars for US$3.3 million (equivalent to $5,924,908 in 2022). The coins were certified and sealed in coin slabs by the Numismatic Guaranty Company (NGC). Spectrum Numismatic International priced individual coins from the hoard between US$50 and US$10,000.

Background

Benny Binion with his daughter Becky (eventual owner of Binion's Horseshoe) in front of the famous $1 million display (c. 1969)

In 1951, Benny Binion opened a casino on Fremont Street in Las Vegas which he named Binion's Horseshoe.[1] In the 1950s, he was convicted for tax evasion.[1] To finance his legal defense he had to sell his majority interest in the casino. As a result of his conviction, he was prohibited from holding a gaming license. Benny Binion's five children took over his share of the casino. In 1964 the family reacquired the majority stake in the casino, and Ted Binion assumed the role of manager.

Ted Binion rebranded the casino Binion's Gambling Hall and Hotel. In the casino vaults he stored his hoard of silver.[3] He was a long time user of illicit drugs;[1] for many years, he was known to smoke tar heroin and take Xanax (anti-anxiety pills). Binion's gaming license was suspended several times over an 11-year period because of his drug use.[4] He was also known to associate with mafia figures.[5] Binion was also a collector of silver, silver coins and guns.

In 1997, the Nevada Gaming Control Board gave Ted Binion a one year license suspension after he failed a drug test.[6] One year later, in 1998, the Nevada Gaming Commission revoked Binion's license. They cited his ties to a murdered underworld figure named Herbert Blitzstein as the reason.[4] Binion and Blitzstein were seen at adult nightclubs. Binion also gifted Blitzstein a gold watch.[7] The Gaming Commission voted 4–0 in favor of stripping Binion's license.[4] After Binion lost his gaming license, he sold his share of the casino to his sister Becky Behnen.[3] The license ban was permanent, and Ted Binion made plans to move his silver from the casino vaults.

He did not know where to store the silver, so he first had it moved to the garage at his home. His attorney attempted to find a place to properly store the silver but was unsuccessful. Binion came up with the idea to bury the silver on an empty lot he owned in Pahrump, along the main highway.[8] In April of 1998, Binion had an underground vault buried on the lot approximately 12 ft (3.7 m) deep.[9] In July 1998, just two months before his death, Ted Binion hired Richard Tabish to move the silver.[10] Binion hired Tabish because he was a trucking contractor.[11] William Alder was one of the men who helped move the hoard out of the casino. Alder stated that Ted Binion supervised the operation in which two hundred carts of silver were moved from the casino. He stated that they began moving the silver at 1:00 a.m and did not finish until 6:00 a.m. The silver covered the floor of a trailer and measured 25 ft (7.6 m) x 8 ft (2.4 m); it was approximately 3 ft (0.91 m) or more deep.[12] Ted Binion's lawyer Richard Wright said Binion chose the empty lot along a busy highway because he thought anyone digging in such a busy location would attract attention.[9] The hoard was said to weigh 46,000 pounds (21,000 kg) and have a value of US$4M (equivalent to $7,000,000 in 2022).[3] Cathy Scott, an investigative journalist who wrote Death in the Desert: The Ted Binion Homicide Case, stated in an interview: "I think he didn't trust banks or he was filing money from the IRS and so he put it in mattresses, buried it in the backyard, as did his father."

credit to wiki.

Own a piece of history!