Casino Chip Collecting
June 5th, 2009 | 
Author: Through the four decades of my casino hopping I accumulated a box full of casino chips from all over the world. Visiting Monte Carlo and London, I made it my business to save a chip or two for souvenirs. In Virginia City, Nevada, I couldn't resist the colorful $5 chip used in the Bucket of Blood Saloon casino. When I won a couple hundred dollars there, I took my winnings all in their $5 chips to use for presents. Frankly, from other casinos I just accumulated them, and never gave them a second thought. Then, opening up my Sunday News of October 18, 1998, to my astonishment, there blazing across the front page of the Fall Casino Guide, was IN THE CHIPS: THE COLLECTING CRAZE THAT'S PAYING OUT.
The full-page feature article inside told of the fast-growing 2,000 strong National Casino Chip & Gaming Token Collectors Club (P.O. Box 63, Brick NJ 08923) that had a website and holds an annual convention in Las Vegas.
"Collecting chips has a plus factor that most other collectibles do not have," said Archie Black, president of the club. "Whenever you want to cash in your chips you can at face value." And if the casino no longer exists, your chips will be a hot property and of considerable interest to collectors.
A $100 chip from the Flamingo of 1946 and 1947, when Bugsy Siegel ran the joint, recently sold for $3,500, and even a $100 chip from the Brighton Casino (now the Sands) in Atlantic City sells for thousands of dollars today.
Now how should you start your collection? My suggestion is to save a couple of $1 chips from each casino where you win. If the casino has 25$. chips, you can become The Last of the Big-Time Spenders as you pocket a half-dozen of them. (I even have some 10<t chips from the "sawdust joints" of downtown Vegas that catered to Low Rollers in the 1960s and '70s.)
If you made a nice score at certain casinos you might even save a $5 chip or two from there. If you're not a High Roller 1 urge you not to save any $25 or $100 chips—yet.
Online Casino Take a Spin!
Tags: casino, casino chips, high roller
Posted in Online Casinos