Most collectors have not heard of the Golden Nugget casino Ikes. In the 1970s, back when ”The Strip” was far less dazzling, and many of the hotels and casinos (The houses that Meyer Lansky built) were in the North part of the City, the Golden Nugget was a thriving, gaudy hotel and casino. It had attracted many famous celebrities, both legitimate, and others more shady in occupation. None of the current mega “theme based” establishments existed on the South end of the Strip, and casinos and houses of ill repute were in Downtown. The casino managers and owners got the idea to use Eisenhower Dollars as “tokens” for their high rollers, better known as “whales,” in Vegas vernacular. These Ike’s sat for years, from the early 1970s, into the later 1970s in felt lined cash drawers, with green, red, blue, and plaid felt, in the theme of the casino. Players of stature used them as good luck charms, and sometimes, ran them through the Dollar Slot machines. At any rate, approximately 200 of these Ike dollars got highly toned, from storage conditions, and probably tons of cigar and cigarette smoke. The owners discontinued this courtesy later on, and the coins found their way to ICG, where approximately 160 of them were mass certified as MS 63, or 64, and had the pedigree of “Golden Nugget Casino.” They were almost exclusively of the clad variety, and were almost exclusively business strike. True grades probably varied greatly, depending on handling, and use in slot machines, or good luck tokens. The actual grade range was most likely from AU to gem uncirculated, with about 4 or 5 known proofs. To make a longer story short, I owned 18 of them, back in 2010 to 2015, when I sold hundreds of my toned coins in auctions. Shane Canup listed and sold my 18 Ikes, along with toned Morgans and Kennedy Halves, over a period of months in 2015. This was before Shane’s unfortunate legal problems, and following incarceration. At any rate, I sold all of them for good prices, as they had beautiful pastel rainbow, and vivid rainbow toning. I kept one coin, a 1972s 40% Silver Ike, which I thought to be particularly attractive, and much higher graded than the others. I cracked it out, keeping the ICG attributed holder (at least the labeled part that survived the cutting pliers). The Ike was sent in to PCGS, where it graded MS 66. I then sold it. A couple of weeks ago, I noticed the very coin in question for sale in an eBay auction. I was able to re-purchase the coin at a low price, in an offer situation. So, here is the coin—once one of the small horde of the Golden Nugget Hotel and Casino. This hotel survived the demolition of older Las Vegas Establishments, and I have one of my horde coins back.
Nice, never Heard of the story. Will check that out, what would the Original holder add to the value? I have a silver bar from the Mahoney's silver nugget casino.
That’s a great story and I’m glad you were reunited with this coin. It’s beautiful and toned well. I hope you keep this for many years.
