First American board game could sell for $18,000

PBA Galleries is to offer a rare copy of The Travellers' Tour through the United States, the first board game invented in America.

Travellers game US
The game was released in 1822

It's valued at $12,000-18,000 and will sell in San Francisco on May 19.

Introduced in 1822, the game requires players to follow a route around the US as was (the West had yet to be "won").

Each of the towns and cities en-route is given a number and, when landed on, must be correctly guessed by the player.

The population must be guessed too.

Interestingly dice had negative associations with gambling, so a device called a teetotum was supplied to fulfil the same function. It's not included with this lot.

This is one of four surviving copies of the game. The other three are housed in permanent collections.

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