In addition to be a big miner of silver, and partly because of that, silver dollars were in general use in Nevada longer than in other parts of the US. I found them everywhere when I first started visiting Las Vegas in the early sixties. Only when the silver price rose and collectors and silver speculators started taking them home did the casinos have to find a substitute. Private issue gaming tokens were authorized in 1965, and the first volume shipments were from Franklin Mint, Osborne, Michigan Tool, and a couple others.

Remember, even US coins lost most of their silver in 1965, with the purity going from .900 to .400 in the half dollars and lower denominations later going to a clad base metal with no precious metal at all.

The sound of the casinos, even the table game area, was different when silver dollars were in play. A silver coin will "ring" when struck, while the tokens just make a clink. In those days dollar tables were the rule, and a $2 minimum table was "high stakes" [g].