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Goldfield,NV - Esmeralda County - c1906 - Northern Casino Chip :

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Western Americana Start Price:250.00 USD Estimated At:500.00 - 1,000.00 USD
Goldfield,NV - Esmeralda County - c1906 - Northern Casino Chip :
An authentic $5 gaming chip from the original Northern Saloon in Goldfield, founded and owned by Dink "Tex" Rickard in 1906. Both sides of the chip are identical, with The Northern/ 5 /Goldfield Nev. Black print on an ivory-looking base, with a red edge around the circumference of the piece. Measures 40 mm. Diameter. Plastic case.

Dink Rickard, known by the name of Tex, was a famous saloonkeeper in Nome. Once a Marshal, Dink resigned his position and headed for Alaska just before the Klondike Gold Rush of 1896. He was up in the Yukon Valley prospecting and working in Circle City gambling houses a couple of years before the gold rush started. Supposedly he made and lost several fortunes in those early days. When Carmack discovered gold, Tex got a head start on the hordes of gold seekers that swarmed into Yukon Territory, but he soon learned he could be more successful as a saloon proprietor than as a gold miner. His famous Saloon, the "Northern," in Nome is generally credited with being the only honest gambling saloon in Alaska during the gold rush years. No tokens are known to exist from Tex's Nome establishment, but when the crowds subsided in Alaska, Tex moved on to sunnier skies and by 1906 he was operating another Northern, in Goldfield. It has been described as the most ornate and successful gambling saloon the Old West ever saw and there have been tokens found from there. Tex Rickard continued to prosper and make a name for himself in the years to follow. He went on to partner up with John Ringling in show business and is credited with bringing the first rodeo to New York. He then promoted the first million-dollars gate in boxing history, and after several other ffinancialsuccesses he built Madison Square Garden in 1925. Sport writers still refer to it as "The House That Tex Built." He also organized the Texas Rangers, which later became the New York Rangers hockey team. Any tokens found from a Tex Rickard-owned establishment are great collector pieces that symbolize a wonderful slice of American history.