Question for Casino Chip Collectors.

I have a general exonumia collection I track on a spread sheet program. I have decided to add my casino chip collection to it. All items in all my other collections have a photograph with them for identification. I have a little over 300 different chips and would take a little time to do this. Or, I could just show several large displays and cut down the time. I could identify them as lot# 1, 2, etc.. with a lot value assigned. How have others addressed documenting their casino chips? Individually or in mass? Or is there another way I haven't considered?

 

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just do lots if there are some rare ones document them individually.

 

lets see pics of them

 

This is part of the reason for the thread. I need to first determine how to inventory them. Afterwards, I'll take pictures of the chips to be included.

 

I gave you my recommendation. It does not matter how you do it. its what you prefer.

 

It might be a good idea to take individual photos so if you ever need to sell them, you'll have them ready to go. If you need any info, the Casino Chip & Gaming Token Collectors Club (CC&GTCC) is a good place to start with their message board.

http://www.ccgtcc.com/

I did have individual photos of all of mine, but lost them on my old computer. All I was able to salvage were the group photos.

Chris

 

Very nice collection and presentation cpm9ball. I see you have about three hundred as well. Are you a table game player? I picked up most of mine while playing BJ at the casino's themselves. I started collecting in the mid 60's after my first Las Vegas experience. Now I make it a practice of getting them from any destination I go to, especially foriegn ones. As long as I don't figure in my losses at the tables, they are a cheap souvenir. :>)

 

Thanks!

A lot of mine are commems, and there are quite a few from the APA, BCA & VNEA pool tournaments at the Riviera. As a matter of fact, if you look at the top two rows on the last photo, you will see 11 - $5 & 5 - $25 chips for the BCA 25th Anniversary. I suggested the design for them, and the Riv gave me 5 of each plus the proof sheet to show their appreciation.

Did you see the $1,000,000 chip on the 2nd page, 5th row from the top, 4th from the left?

Chris

 

That's quite an honor and recognition to obtain from the Riviera and the BCA tournament. Your talent as a 9 ball player carries over into other areas, congratulations.

Is that a Zimbabwean million dollar chip or a fantasy piece? Mine are capped at $100 because they came from my buy in. Most are just $5.

 

IMO you should take photos of the individual chips and put some thought into how you might organize them by file name.

Here are a couple we kept from Romania & a couple from a Holland America cruise.

 

I pointed that one out for the fun of it. Actually, it is one of a 9-chip set for the Red Dragon Casino. It is a fictitious casino in the movie, Rush Hour 2 starring Jackie Chan. They were props used in the movie.

Also, the four tokens at the bottom-right of the 3rd photo are from a casino in Spain.

Chris

 

are any of these super rare ?

 

I have five chips from different ships I cruised with, all from Princess Cruise Line. I'll keep those separate with the ports-of-call and the various islands I gambled on. I will probably do a modern and old Las Vegas grouping. Two separate groups. Then another for the "other" U.S. casinos. Lastly, a group of foreign casinos I've been in. I may keep the more valuable pieces separate as Josh suggested. That will get them inventoried quicker. I can go back and slowly work on putting them into inventory individually. I have two groups which I had custom framed, but I will never do that again. I'm not sure how they were mounted or how easily they can be removed.

 

No, not really! All of the chips I've posted are obsolete, but that is a common occurrence to aid the casinos in combatting counterfeiting. As a rule, most casinos change the designs on their house chips every few years and advertise in advance a grace period to allow people to cash in the old ones. Commems become obsolete, too, but their mintages are generally less than 2,000. The $25 Riviera BCA 50th Anniversary chips shown above are the lowest mintage of all that I have - 225.

The neatest set I have is from the Long Horn Casino. This was a joint venture between private investors and the US government on the island of Tinian on the Pacific rim. The set includes a $1, $5, $5 Grand Opening, $25, $25 Grand Opening, $100 & $500 chip. The casino failed after a few months, and by law, the chips were supposed to be destroyed. However, CHIPCO, the company that made the chips was never paid for them, so they filed an injunction in federal court to recover them. When CHIPCO prevailed, they were selling these sets on their website for $50. Of course, the most interesting thing about them is that the island of Tinian is where the Enola Gay departed to bomb Japan to end WWII.

Chris

 

I noticed they are different sizes. Are they different values as well? There seems to be a universal size in chips, even for foreign pieces. Although I have some that are larger from non-U.S. locations. There are also plaques that are used in the European casinos. I have bought some that go back many years. I have a few from France that are even from a casino that Napoleon frequented. They have a silver filigree insert in them. Purchased pieces represent less than 5% of the collection. Everything else was collected when I was on site.

 

I have played in Mesquite Nevada and in Vegas but never kept any chips. I used to have 50 cent piece chips. I used to play the dealers tips or just give them 50 cent chips depending on how well I did at the black jack tables.

 

All of the (US) casino chips are the same size. It's just that I ran out of AirTites with the accent ring, so some appear smaller. Those at the bottom of the last page are $1 gaming tokens (blue accent rings) for slot machines. The two larger ones in the center (bottom) of the last page are commem $10 gaming tokens.

By the way, the chips in the AirTites w/accent rings fit perfectly in the red 2x2 boxes that you can get for flips. I keep them in these boxes alphabetically and number the boxes. I tried using the 2x2 plastic pages in a binder that Eagle sells, but the AirTites are a real tight fit and so heavy that the plastic always cracks. They're expensive and worthless!

Chris

 

I have not used Airtites in this capacity. Chips, being clay and not being handled any more, didn't give me the need. I would have to weigh in the $300 required to encapsulate them now. Doing it as you go along, takes the sting out of it. May be still worth it?

 

I catalog by 1) Casino Name. 2) Denomination 3) Storage location 4) Description. That way you can add fields with the pic ref number, storage location of the chip, etc. But the Casino and denomination sort fields tell me what it is and the storage location (i.e binder A Pg 3, slot 9 A3.09) Lets it be found quickly, no matter how you chose to file them. I am attempting to build a similar spreadsheet for my coins. Good luck with it

 

Salty, do you have a copy of "A Collector's Guide to Nevada Gaming Checks & Chips" by Howard & Kregg Herz? It's loaded with info.

Chris