One area in Kentucky still won’t be able to buy alcohol — a decision made by the flip of a coin.

A vote held on whether to allow alcohol sales in the Graham Precinct in Daviess County ended with a 21-21 tie. So officials flipped a half-dollar coin (heads “yes,” tails “no”) to decide the issue, and the Messenger-Inquirer newspaper reports it came up tails.

David Osborne, the county clerk, said the election’s outcome was “unprecedented” in an issue vote.

The county has 65 precincts where alcohol sales are legal and 17 where they are not.

The historical origin of coin flipping is the interpretation of a chance outcome as the expression of divine will. It is a simple and unbiased way of settling a dispute or deciding between two or more arbitrary options. In duels, a coin toss was sometimes used to determine which combatant had the sun at his back.