Chicago Merchants Club, four 1896 - 1907 (100 years old)
poker chips/tokens {All on this page is taken from an old eBay auction of
mine.]
DESCRIPTION OF CHIPS: What makes this auction particularly
special is that you are getting all 4 different Chicago Merchants Club chips/tokens,
something you don't usually see.
In the early days, metal tokens were typically used for gambling.
Low value chips were used mostly because of the value of the dollar then.
Gambling supply catalogs pictured such items amongst their offerings. ....
....... The chips in this auction are generally larger than the corresponding
U. S. coins, though the $1.00 one is exactly 1-1/2", the same as the modern
commemorative coin dollars. The 10-cent one is 3/4" diameter, the 25-cent
one 1-1/8," and the 50-cent one 1-1/4." All nice fractionals 100 years old!
Each side has the same design. "
CHICAGO MERCHANTS CLUB:The Chicago Merchants Club was a
predecessor club to The Commercial Club of Chicago. It was organized in Chicago
in 1896. It merged with the Commercial Club in 1907. Its leaders included
Charles G. Dawes, Frederic A. Delano, and Charles H. Wacker. It was responsible
for commissioning Daniel Burnham's Plan of Chicago (1909), also known as
Burnham's plan, which brought together some of the best architects and minds
of the time to remodel and shape the layout of the city to make it as attractive
and commercially successful as possible.
In 1906 Merchants Club Finance Committee Chairman Walter Wilson
contacted banker Charles Dawes, urging him to solicit funds from other wealthy
and civic-minded Chicagoans. Every one of the approximately fifty members
of the Merchants Club was made a member of the Finance Committee and asked
to solicit from others in support of the planning effort. Dawes was later
Vice President of the United States and co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize..
... ... ... In 1906-07 Charles Norton (later Assistant Secretary of the Treasury)
was president of Chicago's Merchants' Club when he persuaded Daniel Hudson
Burnham to undertake the three-year planning effort which resulted in the
famous "Burnham Plan" (see: http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/191.html)
even though the famous architect just had heard that he was ill, with three
years to live (he lived six, Norton reported in an article in the 1922 history
of the Merchants' Club, because he so enjoyed working on the plan!).
CONDITION: fine, no problems, save a little use.
I HAVE BEEN AN AVID POKER CHIP COLLECTOR
FOR MANY YEARS. CHECK MY AUCTIONS REGULARLY.
Click
here to see a list/link to my other current eBay auctions, mostly gambling-related.
Click here to
see my eBay "ABOUT ME" page to learn more about poker chip collecting.........and
about me and what I collect! Questions, comments and chatting welcomed.
I have a hoard of chips for sale, so tell me what you would like to see on
eBay. Robert.
