What Happened to the Original Binion's Million-Dollar Display?

I see the Binion's million-dollar display is back at Bally's. But I've forgotten where the original display of a hundred $10K bills at Binion's ended up. Did the Binion family cash them in? Or maybe it was mandatory when the U.S. government withdrew them from circulation?

This question came from a Vegas News item about a replica Million-Dollar Display being set up at Bally's (soon to be the Horseshoe) near Jack Binion's Steak. It's actually the third incarnation of it.

The first display went up in 1954 and used uncirculated $10,000 bills in numerical sequence. It lasted five years, until Benny Binion needed the money; he took down the display and cashed the bills. (The story goes that Binion called up an armored Brinks truck to transport the bills to the bank, then sent dummy bills with the truck and carried the real ones to the bank, stashed in his own cowboy boots.)

In 1964, Binion revived the display. He searched high and low and eventually came up with a hundred new $10,000 bills. These bills were rarely available to the general public, being used primarily for interbank settlements. (Their distribution ended in 1969, when the Treasury Department began removing them from circulation.) The 1964 display stood for 35 years.

From practically the very beginning of the first display, a photographer snapped free souvenir photos of visitors in front of the million bucks. Over the years, more than five million people had their pictures taken in front of the display; in fact, many, like us, recorded their various trips to downtown Las Vegas over five decades with separate photos.

In December 1999, then-Horseshoe owner Becky Behnen, daughter of Benny Binion who died in 1989, quietly sold the display to an unnamed private collector. It was the largest single collection of $10,000 bills in existence; in fact, at that time, only 340 $10,000 bills remained in circulation, so the Binion's display accounted for nearly 30% of them.

It's unknown how much was paid, but in 1999, uncirculated $10,000 bills were going for about $75,000 apiece. However, it's doubtful that the Binion bills fetched quite that much, due to the 35-year-old glue used to hold them in the display case. It's believed the 100 bills, together, were sold for between $2 million and $2.5 million.

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Dave_Miller_DJTB Oct-02-2022

Third display at Binions / counterfeit display at Ballys

After the hundred $10K bills were sold, a third display, consisting of a pyramid of 10,000 hundred dolls bills was put in its place. Because it was real money, albeit not entirely that easy to access (it was well protected by thick plexiglass), it was considered part of the casino’s minimum cash on hand required by gaming. 

The display recently set up at Bally’s (soon to be Horseshoe) has gotten a lot of buzz on social media as being counterfeit. The hundred $10K bills all have the same serial number - the same as the number on the bill shown on a google search of the $10K bill image.

[email protected] Oct-02-2022

Ballys/Paris

There also was a million dollar display for a time in the walkway between Ballys and Paris.  It was stacks of, IIRC, mostly $100 bills, but also $20s.  It was all protected in a thick, plexiglass hexahedron (not a cube since the faces were rectangular rather than square).  It was quite a popular place for photos.

That Don Guy Oct-02-2022

As Seen On TV

There is an episode of "The Phil Silvers Show" from late 1958 that shows the million dollar display.

As for the rarity of $10,000 bills, from what I have been able to gather, (a) the Treasury stopped printing them in 1945, and (b) starting in 1971, whenever a Federal Reserve Bank gets anything larger than a $100, it is supposed to destroy it, so you can no longer simply go to a bank and exchange $10,000 for one.

VegasVic Oct-02-2022

Pyramid

I remember that pyramid display downtown.  Wasn't as cool as the $10,000 bills but still a million bucks and they still did the free pic.

Kevin Lewis Oct-02-2022

Blunder

Removing this display was one 1⃣ the many ways that Becky Binion Bunion Bozo Behnen fucked up the place. Benny may have been a genial multiple murderer, but he knew how to run a casino.

Roy Furukawa Oct-02-2022

Provenance?

Even though the bills may have been compromised by glue or such, the provenance of them being in the Binion's display may be worth more. Not every $10,000 bill can lay claim to being photographed that many times. :)

AL Oct-03-2022

$75,000?

Why in the world would someone pay $75,000 for a $10,000 bill?  If you bought one of them for that price, what have you got?  What have you accomplished?  Would the person proudly display it in a case on the wall of his living room to impress visitors?  I would be UN-impressed; the guy has just made $10K of his assets unusable, and ripe for theft once word gets around.  If he stored it in a vault for safe keeping, then what was the point of the purchase?  And if I knew he paid $75K for a $10K bill, I would be EXTRA unimpressed; I would think he was stupid to lose $65K on the transaction.  The whole idea seems ridiculous to me.

Question of the Day - 02 October 2022

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