Ted Binion’s Peace Dollars
THE PEDIGREE OF BURIED TREASURE, A CASINO LEGEND’S SUSPICIOUS DEATH AND THE ALLURE OF LAS VEGAS
No Peace dollars were struck in Nevada, but thousands of them have a direct history and a tangible link to the Silver State aside from any Nevada ore that may have been used to make the coins. ese particular silver dollars are part of the mystery of legendary Las Vegas casino operator Ted Binion.
Lonnie eodore “Ted” Binion’s father was the fabled Benny Binion who owned the famous Binion’s Horseshoe casino in downtown Las Vegas. Opened in 1951 and operated by Benny and later his family, it attracted worldwide attention for decades for its exhibit of 100 U.S. $10,000 denomination banknotes in a horseshoe-shaped display. In 2004, the family sold what then was known as Binion’s Gambling Hall & Hotel and it closed in 2009 during the Great Recession of 2007-2009.
Ted had his own problems, including reported substance abuse and investigations by the Nevada Gaming Commission. His gaming license was suspended in 1997 and revoked in 1998. Because he could no longer be associated with the casino, he removed his possessions, including a stash of silver reportedly stored in the casino’s basement. He moved it to a secret underground vault far from downtown Vegas.
Ted Binion died in September 1998, four months after losing his gaming license. Investigators rst ruled it was because of a drug overdose, then later determined that it was a homicide. Soon after his death, his multi-million-dollar silver stash was discovered at a home Binion owned in Pahrump, Nevada, about 60 miles west of Las Vegas.
More than 100,000 Morgan and Peace silver dollars, along with casino chips, paper money and tons of silver bullion were found in a concrete vault dug 12-feet underground.
Eventually, Binion’s daughter inherited much of the stash, and she subsequently started selling some of it, including silver dollars. In January 2002, NGC (Numismatic Guaranty Company), a rm that o ers thirdparty opinions on a coin’s genuineness and rates it on the one through 70 scale, issued a news release with the headline, “Ted Binion’s Silver Dollars Sold.”
NGC rated and certified as genuine many of the Morgan and Peace dollars and included the “BINION COLLECTION” pedigree on the description labels inserted in the sealed, plastic encapsulation holders of each certi ed Binion coin.
e news release stated: “Ted Binion’s fabled collection including over 100,000 high quality U.S. silver dollars has been sold for over three million dollars.”
ere’s a market for Binion coins such as the 57,650 Peace dollars certi ed by NGC. For example, the coin pictured here in an NGC holder is a 1923 Peace dollar graded Mint State-67, just three points from awless, sold by Heritage Auctions, an American multi-national auction house based in Dallas, for $3,120 in January 2021.
Depending on the date and condition of the coin, other Binion Peace dollars have sold over the years in the marketplace for as little as a few hundred dollars to as high as $10,000.
You may not hit a Vegas jackpot, but you could be a numismatic winner with a silver dollar that once belonged to a colorful, controversial Sin City casino owner.