Collectors Corner: Casino Chips
I found this very interesting!
Collectors Corner: Casino Chips
By Michele Alice
EcommerceBytes.com
July 08, 2012
$28,988.88 for a one dollar casino chip? $100,000 for a one hundred dollar chip?!
You bet, especially if it's a rarity from one of the now defunct Las Vegas casinos like the Showboat (1954-2001) or from the legendary Sahara (1952-2011), the last of the casino-hotels frequented by Frank Sinatra and his Rat Pack.
Prior to the 1880's - a time when most gambling took place in saloons, riverboats, and gambling houses - bets were placed using gold and silver coins, gold nuggets, gold dust, or anything else of acceptable value. Poker chips were developed as a means of standardizing the values of bets. The earliest chips were often made of bone or scrimshawed ivory (and are now highly collectible!), but by the late 19th century a number of companies were producing what would become the casino-grade compression molded clay chip.
Early on, gambling establishments learned that they had to "brand" their chips in some manner else they'd be flooded with worthless chips snuck in from off-premises. Clay chips, with their printed inlays, inserts (edge spots), and rim mold designs fulfilled all the necessary requirements, including ease of stacking and uniformity of weight, size, and color.
Since then, plastic and ceramic chips have been added to the mix. Ceramic chips, introduced in the 1980's, are actually made of a resin material. Although some collectors like the fact that the graphics on ceramic chips generally cover the entire surface and not just the inlay, clay chips remain the favorite.
A casino chip, except as a souvenir or collectible, has no monetary value outside the issuing establishment. Gambling laws vary from state to state, but jurisdictions such as Nevada require that casinos destroy old chips, so chips in the secondary markets today owe their survival to casino patrons who either forgot they had them in their purses or pockets, or decided to keep them as mementos of their stays. It's not uncommon to find a chip or two at a yard or estate sale where they're thrown onto a table along with other miscellany. And sometimes those two or three dollar purchases can translate into big payouts at auctions.
Casino chips belong to a category of numismatics known as "exonumia" (money substitutes), and collections of chips are as varied as those of coins. There are collectors who seek out chips of specific denominations, like the $2.50 (or equivalent) "snappers" used at blackjack tables. Others look for specimens from a particular manufacturer or locale, like Atlantic City. Still others collect specific colors or rim designs, such as the "Greek key."
But the most popular and valuable chips are those from Las Vegas, especially those from the old casinos built in the 1940's and 1950's and since demolished to make room for the new mega resorts. Mobster Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel's Flamingo Hotel & Casino, opened in 1946, is a particular favorite, and some "Bugsy chips" as they're called, can fetch several thousands at auction.
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