Description
Park Theater Admit Ticket token, 1817, New York City, USA
Batty 199; Rulau E-NY-41.
This is one of the earliest American admission tickets, if not the earliest.
This is an important token from the early days of American theatres. The catalogues say from Park Theater, but perhaps these tokens were used in more than one theatre.
The famed New York City’s Park Theater opened in 1798 and was located on Park Row in New York City, near modern day City Hall on the Manhattan side of the Brooklyn Bridge. It became successful in the 1810-1830 period. Acquired in 1805 by John Jacob Astor, it remained in the Astor family’s possession until its final days. Consumed in flames several times throughout its history, its ultimate demise was brought about in the 1848 conflagration, after which the Astor family elected not to rebuild it.
These tokens come in two types: ADMIT (in coin rotation) and PAID (in medal rotation). This one is ADMIT. (Numista)
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