Gold Crown 1

The value of a Gold Crown really depends on the area. Occasionally, you can come upon a Gold Crown for $600 or less. However, (again, dependent on the area) those deals tend to be few and far between.

If a Gold Crown is what you really want, $1000 is a decent price, so long as the table is in reasonable condition. Expect that there may be some missing bolts, and it will need new cloth. If the cushions need replacement, you might be able to work the price down some, but don't expect too much.

That being said, if the cushions do need replacement, you have a couple of options. You CAN replace the current Monarch Superspeed cushions with a standard K55 profile cushion. As a result, the table will bank a bit faster than it should, and the bank angles will tighten up some. This is because the nose height will be slightly too low. This will also reduce the play area to 49 3/4" X 99 3/4" (Hardly noticeable).

Conversely, you could also replace the cushions with a standard K66 profile, though you would have to ensure that the cushions were mounted lower on the subrail, to maintain the correct noseheight (approximately 1 7/16"). This is a bit more of a chore, but doing so will maintain the standard play area of 50" X 100".

If you have the budget for it, the best option is to send your rails to a capable technician, to have the subrail angles changed. With this, the technician can properly install K55 cushions to the correct nose height, which will make your table play at its peak performance.

BTW, where are you located?

I'd do a search within this forum and you'll find allot of good info, some from my prior posts as I had a room with GCI's and II's. Here are some basics. The feet on GCI's are non adjustable. The brown stone or burn stone slates/deep reddish orange(flint) if cracked can be repaired, since it's NOT slate. The slate frames/poplar are MUCH thicker, thus giving the play surface it's 31'' ht. and not needing leg levelers. The pocket irons have barrel holes to run the bolts thru and don't loosen up in time, like the GC II's and later (tho is took a pool room environment to loosen up the later ones, if they did). Other than that, the ball counters hopefully are the older style, which when working are the best of all. If the top rail formica color is deep then this table was most likely not in a pool room for years, tho most all GCI's were in colleges and pool rooms of the sixties. You can also tell allot about the age of the table by the amount of staple holes into the side of the thicker slate frames. Brunswick never did make a table or frame any better, just more ornate or thicker slated, but those older ones are heavy and end up in a rich persons home.

GCIs and GCIIs came with Brunstone, some people do not like it, there is absolutely nothing wrong with it. You can not tell a difference by playing on it.

GCIs may or may not have leg levelers, just the very early ones came without leg levelers. I think most on AZB who have GCIs do have leg levelers, my GCI does.

You can put K55 cushions on and it does shrink the play area by 1/4" both directions which I agree is not a big deal. What I do think is a big deal about short cutting your cushion job and using K55s is that the table will no long be twice as long as it is wide. The diamond system will not play properly on multi rail shots. The correct way to do it is send your rails to one of the mechanics here and they can modify the sub-rails to fit a current cushion profile. I had my Monarch Super Speeds replaced with Artemis cushions, i have zero complaints about my Artemis cushions but if I had to do it again I probably would have used current Super Speeds.

I have never seen or heard of any problems with the pockets and/or pocket irons coming loose on Gold Crowns, its the first time I heard about it in these forums.

The only problem I had with my Gold Crown was when I went to sand the white paint off of the rail blinds, the paint is very tough and took a very long time to sand off using my air power D/A

pogmothoin said:

I have an opportunity to buy a gold crown 1 for around $1000. I've researched through google and read all I can find to read. I still haves some questions that perhaps you all can answer.

I don't know if it has real slate, blue stone or brunstone. Does that change the value? Can real slate be purchased and if so how much. I saw some threads with links to new slate but they were no longer good.

The table obviously needs new cloth. No problem.

Not sure if the rubber has to be replaced yet but there a good chance they will. I've read some things that say the rail profile is different from todays tables so replacing cushions require extra work. Is that so?

That table is in fair condition, no major cosmetic damage but it's not perfect either. I'm trying to figure out if it would be worth buying given the cost of likely repairs.

Any advise would be appreciated. Thanks.

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Like Fastone said....the fact that it's brunstone makes no difference IMO.

The main things I'd look for are major cracks running through the 'slate', and if all the parts match up. You might need the eye of a table mechanic to know for sure if the table's been pieced together from different tables.

Hard to say for sure without seeing it, but I think for $1000, it an OK price but not a steal.....depends what area of the country you're in though, and depends how bad you want it. If you want the pockets tightened and the table set up perfectly in the end it could end up costing anywhere from $1000 to $2000 on top of the cost of the table.

When they're fixed up right, they're the best tables ever made IMO.

Make whoever takes that table apart if you buy it knows that the slates are most likely pinned. They will break the slate if they try to lift them straight up, you must slide them away from each other.

Island Drive said:

I'd do a search within this forum and you'll find allot of good info, some from my prior posts as I had a room with GCI's and II's. Here are some basics. The feet on GCI's are non adjustable. The brown stone or burn stone slates/deep reddish orange(flint) if cracked can be repaired, since it's NOT slate. The slate frames/poplar are MUCH thicker, thus giving the play surface it's 31'' ht. and not needing leg levelers. The pocket irons have barrel holes to run the bolts thru and don't loosen up in time, like the GC II's and later (tho is took a pool room environment to loosen up the later ones, if they did). Other than that, the ball counters hopefully are the older style, which when working are the best of all. If the top rail formica color is deep then this table was most likely not in a pool room for years, tho most all GCI's were in colleges and pool rooms of the sixties. You can also tell allot about the age of the table by the amount of staple holes into the side of the thicker slate frames. Brunswick never did make a table or frame any better, just more ornate or thicker slated, but those older ones are heavy and end up in a rich persons home.

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I'm sorry, but it's best not to give advice if you don't know what you're talking about. GC1s did come with adjustable leg levelers after 1963, a GC has never had a 31" playing surface height factory set. And I have no idea what GC you're talking about with pocket irons.

pogmothoin said:

Well this is the sort of problem I've come across trying to research this old table. Lot's of seemingly conflicting information. Would you recommend a GC1? What issues should I look and consider in for opinion?

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In my area, 90% of the tables that I work on are Gold Crowns. Of that percentage, the vast majority are GC1's. I have yet to see one that I felt wasn't worthy of repair.

So long as all of the major components are included (castings, aprons, rail counters), and the slates aren't broken, it's a pretty good price. New pockets aren't very expensive, and most of the rest of the hardware is easy to replace, if necessary.

At that price, I don't think you'll have to worry about much. The only major issues to worry about would be if the table were ever water damaged, or previously set up in a pool hall.

Tables in pool halls are played on and recovered far more frequently than a residential table. This causes the wood to wear out more rapidly, from stapling and ball impacts (in the pocket faces).

Absolute worst case, you'd have to send your rails to a capable technician, who could replace the subrails. After which, your table will play as if it were brand new. For this service, as well as a proper setup, you COULD be looking at as much as $2000, in addition to the table. But, that is more dependent on the area in which you live.

pogmothoin said:

Got the guy down to $700. Some old cues with a stand, balls, and light included.

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By it and don't look back.

rexus31 said:

By it and don't look back.

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What he said

pogmothoin said:

Got the guy down to $700. Some old cues with a stand, balls, and light included.

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Is the cue stand like this one? (the vertical model is slightly better than the horizontal model FYI) :grin:

pogmothoin said:

More like this style, slightly different, but this type.

View attachment 429258

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Thats still nice, its a matching cue rack to the table.

pogmothoin said:

Nothing that fancy. That looks like it could belong to George Jetson.

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I actually bought it from his boy, Elroy!!!!

Slate source

Steve Lunsford Corporation
7970-9th Avenue South
Saint Petersburg, FL 33707
phone 727-420-9220
fax 727-343-0923
E-mail ; slunsford3@tampabay.rr.com