Today I find myself in Las Vegas, Nevada, where the main industry is gambling. While touring the vast expanse of slot an video poker machines -- I noticed something was missing. There are absolutely no coins here. To play a slot machine, one can insert paper money. Buttons are pushed to bet quarters, dollars, or whatever. At the end, the player pushes the payout button and receives a voucher representing the cash won. As the machine prints the voucher, it generates artificial sound of coins clinking through the machine. But gone are the days of players holding there casino cups brimming with silver quarters and dollars.
Casinos have played a significant role in our coinage. Many of the Morgan dollars , shunned by the citizens at large, were distributed by the treasury for use in the casinos. In 1965, Lyndon Johnson ordered the minting of the "1964 D Peace dollars " to satisfy the gambling industry. Click here to see my brief educational video on the 1964 D Peace Dollar . And so, we have another example of our shift to a society in which coins may becoming obsolete.
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