The Coolest Casino Gaming Chip Ever?! El Cortez 1988 $5 Gold Token
mattniss
Posts: 705 ✭✭✭✭
I love coming across pieces that are just so cool, so interesting, and so rare all at the same time! I was over at my LCS helping them out with a live stream and the owner said casually to me, "Want to see something really cool?" Needless to say, what he procured did not disappoint!
1988 El Cortez Hotel & Casino $5 Gold Token
NGC PF66 UCAM -- only 1 of 3 in existence!
This fascinating cross section of casino memorabilia and numismatic oddities combined with the incredible run for gold prices left me very excited to get to hold this one in hand for a short while. Any of you out there in forum land own any of these "casino treasures"?
After doing a little research on this one, it turns out that a small few gold gaming tokens were privately minted by the Van Brook Mint in Lexington, Kentucky for Jackie Gaughan, who was the owner of several Las Vegas casinos, including the El Cortez and Union Plaza casinos. According to what I could find, there were just 10 $1 Union Plaza gold tokens minted (each at 1.65 ounces of gold), 10 $1 El Cortez gold tokens minted (each at 1.65 ounces of gold) and 5 $5 El Cortez gold tokens minted (each at 2.75 ounces of gold).
While all 10 of the Union Plaza $1 have since been encapsulated and verified, only 6 of the $1 El Cortez and 3 of the $5 El Cortez are still in existence.
When Mr. Gaughan passed away in 2007, Ron Gillio came in and purchased most of the Gaughan estate coins and tokens, which included the aforementioned 10 Union Plaza $1's, 6 El Cortez $1's, and 3 El Cortez $5's, plus "...hundreds of silver dollars, half-dollars, quarters and dimes from before 1965, including a collection of silver dollars from 1878 to 1935; $5, $10 and $20 U.S. gold coins minted before 1932; and more than a hundred bars of silver."
Here's a couple articles talking about the sale and a little of the history behind them:
Las Vegas Review Journal: Casino owner sells treasures (12/14/2007)
CoinNews.net: Vegas Casino Sells Historic Coins and Tokens to Spectrum (12/12/2007)
Comments
That is super cool... thanks for sharing. It will probably be the only one I ever see!
I am a newer collector (started April 2020), and I primarily focus on U.S. Half Cents and Type Coins. Early copper is my favorite.
I wonder if that was a token of appreciation to high rollers? Pun intended.
TurtleCat Gold Dollars
That's an awesome piece! BTW, the El Cortez is a great old school casino. I used to regularly see owner Jackie Gaughan playing low stakes poker with his customers on the casino floor. He was very elderly, and he'd have to have a cocktail waitress help him to mens room, or to go back to his suite. He had sold the casino to Kenny Epstein, but had an agreement that he could live there until he passed. I usually stay at the Cortez once or twice a year, and Kenny, the new owner walks the floor just like Jackie did. He's very friendly as well, and I always look forward to seeing him. If you ever want to go back in time to 1941, visit the El Cortez!
Dave