5 more cat house tokens

And political correctness. Does anyone possess a sense of humor anymore?

 

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1) Depends on jurisdiction.

2) Probably not anymore.

 

They are all modern fantasies. There is no genuine US bordello token good for the services of the women. There are a few saloon tokens known where the saloon was associated with a bordello. These tokens are all for drinks or discounts for drinks at the bar.

 

Some may be fifty years old or so, but even at that I would say they are fantasy pieces. I remember seeing these same tokens being sold in the seventies in the old "The Coin Wholesaler" paper put out by the Chattanooga coin co.

 

I have to join in that every one you have pictured are long time known fantasy tokens made in the 70,80,s as souvenir pieces. the most common reverse on all tokens are the ones you showed good for all night, and $3.00 check.
The locations may change. but there are so many of them out there that when they are sold in bulk quantities. There have been no known real bordello tokens. Most didn't last for any length of time. So buying a token for use later is almost in the realm of sheer stupidity. The miners and others of the era, used what they had in the pocket for both drink and other. Using tokens when chips or money would have been the popular choice. No problem with using your winning after the game. No tokens to cash in!
All the ones you have shown are listed as known long time fakes and fantasies in Alpert's &Elman's Tokens and medals book.

Genuine Saloon tokens from later when drinks were 2 for a.25¢ would have the name on one side and good for one drink or .12½¢ on the reverse. You got one drink and a check for use then or at a later date. The did have tokens for slot machines but they were just for the slot machines most times.

Aging tokens and other metal items is a very easy process. 50 years is no biggie. No most of us old farts here were born in the late 40's 50's etc.

The slime on flea bay often make like these are the Real Macoy, and sell them for $10.00 and up. A couple of things to consider, some of these fantasies have cast fakes of them being made today! the other thing is some of these are still being "minted" today. Yes there are collectors of these, and a lot of token collectors like to have a couple examples in the collections.

The value retail is generally $1.00 to $2.00. Again if there were genuine "Cat House" tokens there would be few of them not in the number seen like these. And they would be some of the most sought after tokens and in the $100.00 + ranges and up.

Finally, yes there are a number of currently and recently operating Bordello's in Nevada today. They do have souvenir checks for sale as far as I have heard they are not good for trade! And the couple I have seen are more in the gaming chip type.

 

Cool info. Thanks

 

From what I see in my reference book, the modern brothel tokens pretty much appear to be souvenir pieces and are not good for trade. It appears that the operating brothels seemed to have issued one for each of the "ladies" (typically with a color depiction) working there, so a complete set would be somewhat extensive. If anyone is interested in furthering their knowledge in this area, the modern reference is from 2003, entitled Cathouse Connection - a Guide for Brothel Collectibles, by David R. Whalen. The October, 1979 issue of the TAMS Journal has an article discussing the fantasy brothel pieces, such as what the OP has.