I'm a new member so I'm sure this has been touched on before. This forum is great as members always take time to answer me, unlike other forums where my queries go unanswered. As a coin collector, I used to love visiting the slot machines at Vegas and Atlantic City. I would search through the coins for some "goodies" to add to my collection. Now, for the most part, they use "coinless" slots. The player gets a paper receipt. As if that's not bad enough, the receipt uses "disappearing" ink so if saved, the ink fades and the winnings, if any, are nil! They took the fun out of it. They also stopped manufacturing the gaming tokens which made great souvenirs at $1 apiece. If you win, you don't even see a coin. The "sound" of falling coins is a sound effect emitted from the speaker in the machine!
Hi Myron, There was a show on the history channel about a jewler from Jersey who counterfeited those tokens. He did it in the early nineties and went undetected for several years. That's prolly one reason why they don't offer the tokens in some casinos nowadays.
The Injun casinos in Connecticut still use coins for MOST slots. I gathered some state quarters I was looking for, but otherwise, there isn't much interesting coming out of them.
There are still dollar tokens and coin machines in Vegas just not as much. I prefer the dollar chips instead. Even the casinos where they have the paper still have one or two if not more coin machines. The biggest reason they switched over was they could use less people and lower cost (no change girl etc). If you go to the cahiers cage at the casino's in Vegas you can even get a brand new chip if you tell them you collect chips. I thought it would be easy to get one each from the downtown casino's hah!!! They keep changing LOL!!! Now I have them from all over and it's over a hundred chips. Now the trick is to get some those $10 silver tokens in the special machines for under 20 bucks. I once got 3 for $20 worth of play hehheh. By the way I just came back from Vegas on Tuesday and at least 4 casino's downtown changed the design of their chips....well at least since the last time I was there (Jan 2004).
I heard about that too. His neighbor made the blanks for him and he manufactured the tokens in his garage. I guess he was so good that even the original token manufacturer thought they were real. He was caught when the slot machine he was playing malfunctioned and instead of waiting for help he walked away which caught the attention of security. Yes he was finally caught and served time. Don't know the charge. The funny thing was that after he got out he was quickly employed by who else......The US Mint! I have a copy of the show, I'll have to watch it all the way through. I was told it was a great program.
Myron, I agree with you one hundred percent. I used to love playing the old coin machines. But when they changed to TITO (Ticket In Ticket Out), the fun was taken away. In addition to finding 'goodies' like you, I was fortunate enough to actually win a gold coin from a slot machine. A real gold coin. Cost me 75 cents to play, three quarters in a Reno Cal-Neva machine that had 'Coin Symbols' instead of 'Bars' or '7s' for the top payoff. Hit the jackpot on a single play of the machine, while we were walking through the casino on our way to dinner. I remember that the casino offered me a choice of taking the coin or a 'cash equivalent', and I chose the coin, much to the disappointment of my wife who was tugging on my arm in a vain attempt to get me to change my mind. I still have that coin (an AU $10 Eagle). If I had chosen the cash, the entire event would probably be a forgotten experience. There are still a few places where you can find 'goodies' playing the slots. One is the Hotel Nevada in Ely, Nevada. They still had coin slots the last time I visited (about two years ago) and also a huge mural in the restaurant made from real Buffalo Nickels. Another place is the Contest Forum right here on Coin Talk. Coincidentally, I've just posted a 'Slot Machine Contest'. Check it out, win some 'goodies'. And thanks for the opportunity to reminisce about gaming in the good old days! --The Coin Trader
One of my favorite casino collectables is the slots that give the big silver strike tokens. For people who dont know they are silver/gold tokens that are made specifically for the casino. They are anywhere from 10 bucks up to 500. You can redeem them for face value at the casino but most like to keep them since they have a lot of silver in them. Typically they have about equal value of silver in weight as its face value. Heres one thats fairly rare that was mine but I sold it last month.
Control your own destiny...here's a circa 1934 I've stocked with silver quarters. Nothing like the sound of a silver payout.
I don't mind the "ticket in/ticket out" technology at all. I like the multiline progressive 1c & 5c video machines, and I always put in a C-note. If one of the machines happened to be cold after playing $20 or $40, can you imagine the hassle of waiting for it to pay out the rest of the credits in actual coins? Besides that, your hands will get black real quick, so be careful when you scratch your nose or wipe your brow. Prior to 2006, all $10 Silver Strikes contained six-tenths of an ounce of silver, but all of those struck from 2006 on contain a half-ounce of silver. The best place I found to play for them was at Slots-A-Fun across the street from the Riv in Vegas. I ended up accumulating 57 of them on $200 of play. Yeah! I like the silver dollar machines at Cal-Neva in Reno, too! The last time I was there, one of the three machines was still paying out in Morgan & Peace dollars and the other two were paying out in SAE's. It has been a few years, so by now, they've probably run out of Morgan & Peace dollars. Chris
This guy was so good at counterfeiting that he puts the Chinese to shame. The particular episode was entitled "Counterfeit King" and appeared on the History Channel series "Breaking Vegas". Here's the details: http://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v11n38a27.html
