FIVE Buck CHARLEY Punchboard UNUSED Tavern Memorabilia Games

Description

Five Buck Charley  Punchboard, never used, vintage tavern/casino game.
Punchboards are the descendants of handmade lottery game boards, which were used in the U.S. as early as the eighteenth century. Lotteries were popular at the time, but they required a large number of ticket-buyers to be successful. Somewhere along the line an enterprising tavern-keeper found a way that he could run a lottery for just a few customers, or even just one. He constructed a game board out of wood, probably about a half an inch thick and 8 inches square. He drilled a number of holes in the board, filling each with a slip of rolled or folded paper. He probably also lettered a sign proclaiming the prizes available. He then charged patrons a fixed sum of money (probably a penny or a nickel) for a chance at several prizes or sums of cash. The patron would use a nail to push one of the slips of paper out of its hole. Each slip of paper had a number printed on it, and if the customer's number corresponded to a number listed as a winner, the customer won that prize. The punchboard was born.