Casino Chip of the Day

Quote: DJTeddyBear

Unnatural? As in, you'd never see them in real life? As in imaginary? Kinda like a mirage?

Unnatural as in they look like I'd expect plastic palm trees to look like.

A mirage would have real colors and a shimer, not orange palm trees.

Quote:

For what it's worth, if you didn't already realize it, that's their logo.

The mirage in cartoons is almost always an oasis, complete with palm trees. But even Bugs Bunny doesn't resort to primary colored plants :)

DJTeddyBear: I still don't know enough about chip manufacturing to respond to your points. I suspect there may be a fair amount of variability in how the inserts respond to temperature and pressure during the molding process.

rdw4potus: Just to continue on the theme of "How many inserts are there?", the MOGH catalog describes your chip as "Inserts: 4 sxsxs WH". I think the fact that the inserts are roughly parallel in groups of three suggests (to them) that there are four 3-prong inserts instead of 12 separate.

Nareed: Perhaps the palm trees were the early work of Wynn's daughter Kevyn.

Doc -

I wasn't making any points with expectations that you'd have answers - although it would have been cool if you did.

I was making my own observations just to bring attention to it. I make my own guesses about the origin - but you can tell it's a guess.

State: Nevada
City: Lake Tahoe
Casino: MontBleu

The MontBleu is located in Stateline, NV, on the southern shore of Lake Tahoe. Once again, I am relying on Wikipedia for the history of this casino-hotel. If I could find two pages there describing the place, I rather expect they would disagree. With only one page to refer to, I only found one notable inconsistency.

The casino was opened by Park Cattle Co. in 1978 as the Park Tahoe. It lasted one year before it was leased to Caesars World, which called it Caesars Tahoe Palace and then Caesars Tahoe. Wiki claims that it was a 25-year lease with options to extend it another 50 years. With no mention of Caesars ever purchasing the property that they leased, Wiki says that they sold it to Columbia Sussex in 2005. If that's the way it happened, it sounds pretty slick. I have heard of "lease to own" but not "lease to sell." Supposedly, the sale was to avoid some anti-trust issues in the merger of Caesars and Harrah's.

Columbia Sussex renamed the place MontBleu in 2006. I don't really understand that uppercase "B" in the middle of the one-word name, but I don't think I will dwell on it. Columbia Sussex, of course, screwed up their casino business, driving it bankrupt. Following restructuring, MontBleu became part of Tropicana Entertainment in 2010.

On our only visit ever to the Lake Tahoe area, my wife and I dined at the Café Del Soul (yep, that's right) at the MontBleu, up a couple of small tiers from the casino floor. I probably took longer having dinner than I took to lose too much at the crap table. We enjoyed the meal very much, but it filled us sufficiently that we couldn't take advantage of their dessert menu. Fortunately, we were in town long enough to correct for that omission a couple of nights later with a dessert-only visit.

The chip shown below (one chip, four images) is a light blue SCV Paulson hat and cane design with two triangular edge inserts. Like DJTeddyBear, I am again having some difficulty getting true colors in my photos. The edge inserts are dark blue and dark grey, no matter what they look like in these photos. The lighting levels of the front and back photos are quite different because first time through I didn't notice that the center inlays are different. When I went back to re-shoot, I failed to duplicate the setup.

The MOGH catalog says that there were three very similar chips issued in 2006, when the casino changed names. One chip has the Short Cane Version of the pattern (like mine), one has the Long Cane Version, and one has the SCV on one side and LCV on the other. All three versions have the same two center inlays with different views of the Lake Tahoe environment.

The catalog does not show the hidden images from any of the chips, so it is just my assumption that they are all the same, with UV light revealing the LCV hat and cane logo on each side of the chip.

Here's my MontBleu chip. I have almost no memory of the casino. I must've still been foggy from the swarm of bicycle racers at Harvey's when I arrived at MontBleu, though that had cleared by the time I arrived at the Lakeside Inn.

it appears that MontBleu has an odd logo, kind of like an upward pointing arrow. On Doc's upper-right chip, it kind of looks like a mountain above/behind the trees. But on Doc's upper left chip, it looks like it's just an arrow (and the shot includes actual mountains). I wonder what that's supposed to be.

Quote: rdw4potus

I wonder what that's supposed to be.

It's either something peculiar to the casino or the owners, or a stylized mountain.

Well, it's definitely the casino's logo, and it appears several times on their web site. I don't know whether it is supposed to be an arrow, a tree, a mountain, an A-frame lodge , or something else. They even offer goods with the logo on them at a shop called Something Bleu.

Been away a few days. This thread made me realize that althought I've gambled at mgm probably a dozen times I don't have a chip. Insane!

State: Nevada
City: Las Vegas
Casino: Monte Carlo

Monte Carlo is Italian for "Mount Charles." In original form, it is a region of Monaco and is named for Prince Charles II, who was once ruler of that Principality. The most famous facilities in that region of Monaco are the casinos, particularly the grand Casino de Monte-Carlo.

I suppose that Las Vegas having a "Mount Charleston" in the vicinity is close enough to "Mount Charles", if any excuse at all is necessary for trading upon an old name with class. The Monte Carlo Resort and Casino in Las Vegas opened in 1996 as a joint development of Mirage Resorts and Circus Circus Enterprises, two companies that took different routes to being assimilated by MGM Resorts International.

I have always felt that the Monte Carlo presents an attractive, classic appearance – somewhat like the way the Venetian does but with different architectural style – while avoiding the tackiness of some of the theme hotels. They are both imitations of the styles of other places, but not caricatures in the way that NewYork New York is.

My wife and I have never stayed at the Monte Carlo, and we have only attended one show there: the impressionist Frank Caliendo. It was the worst performance we have ever paid to see in Las Vegas. He had a pretty decent backup band, but it seemed that he was completely bored and did not want to be performing in front of that audience. What a waste.

The chip shown below is a white RHC Paulson hat and cane design with two triangular maroon edge inserts. According to the MOGH catalog, there are several Monte Carlo $1 chips that are white Paulson designs with the same edge inserts. The two chip designs issued when the casino opened in 1996, like mine, differed only in the hidden image revealed by UV light. In both cases the hidden image is the Paulson hat and cane logo, displayed either upright or at a 90° rotation. I have no idea whether that was an intentional difference or an oversight in manufacturing, as we have discussed before.

The center inlay of these chips includes a stylized top hat above the casino name; I do not know whether that could be a reference to the Paulson logo, but I doubt it. More likely it is an allusion to the formality associated with the namesake casino in Monaco.

There was a similar series of chips (white with maroon edge inserts) issued in 2010 with three variants. These were also Paulson chips with mold designs of LCV, SCV, and SCV/LCV on opposite sides. The 2010 chips had a simpler center inlay that deleted the top hat, the yellow lines near the casino name, and the small font words "resort and casino." In 2012, there has been another Paulson design issued that is also white with maroon inserts; this one has the casino name and city molded into the outer ring, with a hat and cane logo added to the center inlay. I do not know whether the 2010 and/or 2012 chips have any hidden images.

I went to the Grand Opening of Monte Carlo back in June 1996. I happened to be staying across the street at the old Aladdin for the CC&GTCC show that week. Casino opened at midnight to a fireworks show off the roof, and people had been milling about outside for a couple hours already. When the doors finally opened, it was standing room only as we shoved our way in, baby steps at a time, shoulder to shoulder, like 5000 head of cattle trying to get through a tiny gate. Every slot was taken and BJ was $100/hand minimum, craps was $25 I think.

I've stayed there a couple times. Definitely a mid-range hotel that's showing its age at this point. The pachoulli scene they pump through the air of the casino isn't as bad as Venetian, but it's better than cig smoke I guess. I went to Lance Burton back in about 2000 or 2001, not a bad show.

Here's my Monte Carlo chip. The fiancee and I were pretty much sprinting down the strip at the point that I acquired this chip. Not only have I only been to the Monte Carlo once, but I was only there for about 5 minutes. I don't remember why, but we went to Monte Carlo last on it's block (I think after Aria, we decided to walk to the corner and then hit NYNY and MC on the way back north?). The fiancee summed things up well, I think: "This one is kind of bland. The NY one was fun, and the Aria one and Bellagio were fancy. This us just...blah."

Before they remodeled Gold Strike in Tunica (and actually, Monte Carlo for that matter), the two casinos were nearly identical in their appearances. I agree that Monte Carlo doesn't really have any sort of theme or reason to go to it, unless you want to stay in semi-elegance and at a semi-reasonable price in the MGM family. It's a tough sell otherwise.

They used to have a really great DD BJ game in their High Limit room for $25. You could also play Single zero roulette with en prison for $25 but now the limits are upped quite a bit and certainly doesn't feel like the real Monte Carlo.

I was once walking through the lobby of the monte carlo. It was one of those Vegas trips where I was young, overbet my bankroll, and busted out early.I had a 40 ouncer of malt liquor in a brown paper bag I had just opened, and it slipped from my hand. BAM! A huge puddle of malt liquor and broken glass all over the lobby by the hotel check in. I felt bad but there was really nothing I could do but apologize and keep walking....

State: Nevada
City: Henderson
Casino: MonteLago

The Casino MonteLago, which originally opened in 2003, is the second casino at Lake Las Vegas to be discussed in this thread, the earlier one being the Hyatt Regency Lake Las Vegas. I have no training in Italian, but I think "Monte Lago" translates as "Mountain Lake." We did a little speculation on such things earlier in this thread when discussing the meaning of "Bellagio." Just as was the case with MontBleu, I have no idea why MonteLago would be written as one word with an uppercase letter in the middle.

Lake Las Vegas, in addition to its other development and financial difficulties, does not seem to be a very good spot to invest in a casino-hotel. The Hyatt became a Loews and more recently a Westin, and its casino is completely gone. Similarly, both the Casino MonteLago and the adjacent Ritz Carlton closed in 2010. The hotel reopened as Revella, and after a year the casino reopened as a slots-only establishment. I guess I was lucky to collect chips from both casinos while they were available.

My wife and I never looked for any kind of entertainment anywhere at Lake Las Vegas, but we had nice lunches a couple of times at the Tenuta restaurant, just a few steps from the casino floor at the MonteLago. They had a very nice patio dining area. Google Translate indicates that "tenuta" is Italian for "estate." Even if that is correct, I don't know why someone would apply that name to a restaurant. I don't even know whether the restaurant still is in business, under that name or any other.

The chip shown below is a white RHC Paulson hat and cane design with two triangular edge inserts in teal and terra cotta. Yes, I had to ask my wife for help in describing those colors. The center inlay is oversized, covering the tips of the triangles, and includes an ornate coat of arms. Is there perhaps some genuine MonteLago coat of arms?

The MOGH catalog suggests that all of the standard chips that were used at the casino had identical inlays except for the numerals for the denomination, though they do not show any chips larger than $25. There were a few limited-edition chips with different inlays.

UV light reveals the hidden Paulson hat and cane logo on each side, and shows that the teal edge insert fluoresces.

Quote: Doc

I have no training in Italian, but I think "Monte Lago" translates as "Mountain Lake."

I know enough Italian to tell you they possibly screwed up the name. Monte means Mount, not Mountain. It's the same in Spanish. In Spanish and Italian it's used mostly to name mountains, which is more than a bit odd. But no mountian has the word "mountain" in its anme. The tallest one, everest, is Monte Everest.

Anyway, by that convention, the casino makes a reference to a mountian named Lake. That's really odd, unless it was named after somene named Lake. A Mountian Lake, in Spanish, would be "lago de montaña."

Not that I've studied Italian (or as I sometimes call it, Modern Roman Latin), but in many cases it's very similar to Spanish, and the syntax is about identical.

Quote:

Just as was the case with MontBleu, I have no idea why MonteLago would be written as one word with an uppercase letter in the middle.

Fads never die, they just fade away. And sometimes they don't fade enough. In the 90s there was a fad called "Intercapping," which means Internal Capitalization. Sometimes it's called InterCaps. It's the practice of putting a capital letter in the middle of a word. Most often this is done with compound words, that is words made up of two or more words

It's faded, but not completely. Witness the infamous "iPod," among others. Nor was it invented in the 90s. Some names ahve used it for centuries. Thik DuPont, FitzGerald, McCormick and others. It's just that in the 90s it got quite common for some trade marks and titles, like LucasArts and such.

But that's all the significance there is.

I recall that the casino at the MonteLago was not open 24/7, (or maybe it was just the table games). It was a nice little place, a bit dark for my taste (and poor eyesight), but nice. I thought of it as a, "resort with a casino", rather than a, "casino-resort".

The "lake" was artificial, but fed with water diverted from Lake Mead. There were expensive to fix problems with that plumbing which contributed to the development's financial difficulties. The Wizard participated in a triathalon that had the swimming leg of the race in the lake. Check his blog for details. He wasn't worried about the water quality, but having seen the, "foam" on the end of the lake near the highway, I would not recommend regular dips in the water.

I've been to Casino MonteLago twice. Both after the re-opening. The first time, I went because they'd advertised a "large table games pit." Even though I'd heard that it was electronic games only, I thought maybe something had changed. It hadn't. But, it was kind of unique how they set up the electronic games. The machines are back to back in a row in the middle of the casino. So it really is a little pit of electronic table games. When I went, I signed up for the players club. They gave me $20 in free play. Then, I guess based on my $20 in play, they sent me a coupon for $20 more in free play. I happened to be in Vegas during that period, so I used the coupon. The casino is in a very beautiful area, but I suppose it's probably too remote to be viable.

State: Nevada
City: Las Vegas
Casino: Nevada Palace

The Nevada Palace opened on Boulder Highway in July 1979 and closed in February 2008. The owner of the Nevada Palace was also a partner in Cannery Casino Resorts, and he merged his interests by building the Eastside Cannery on the Nevada Palace property.

They tore down the old casino in sections and kept it running until less than six months before the new one was ready to open. If you go on Google Maps to the address 5255 Boulder Highway, Las Vegas, Nevada 89122, you'll find the Eastside Cannery. Drag the Street View icon (the little yellow man) to Boulder Hwy in front of the casino and look to the northeast. You can see the partially-demolished Nevada Palace in the foreground, with the tower of the Eastside Cannery going up behind it.

I only went to the Nevada Palace one time, and I considered it a pretty crummy joint. I played craps and have one memory of that game. I was confused when I saw a couple of guys making their line bets with chips marked "1" or "5" but their prop bets with chips marked "25". That was opposite the pattern I had seen everywhere else. Finally, I realized that those were genuine quarter chips, i.e. 25¢ each, not the green "quarter" chips I thought they were. I don't think I have ever been present for a bird game at any other casino.

For the Eastside Cannery entry in this thread, I said, "I think they could have improved the socio-economic value of the tract of land just by bulldozing the Nevada Palace." I don't think I was being too harsh.

The chip shown below is a light blue SCV Paulson hat and cane design. Will Nareed provide us with a critique of how well the center inlay matches the chip? I say they are equally filthy, even after all of the scrubbing I have done on this chip.

The MOGH catalog indicates that this chip was issued in the 1980s and that there was also a Long Cane Version issued in the same period.

Quote: Doc

Will Nareed provide us with a critique of how well the center inlay matches the chip?

Not that casino chips can ever work as fashiona ccessories, but the beige clashes badly with the turquoise.

How about a general rule of thumb that any casino with "palace" in its name is likely to be crummier than its neighbors? But hurry, as the IP won't be IP much longer, if rumors are to be believed.

Quote: Nareed

How about a general rule of thumb that any casino with "palace" in its name is likely to be crummier than its neighbors? But hurry, as the IP won't be IP much longer, if rumors are to be believed.

Testing:
Palace Station is slightly worse than Strat & Circus Circus
Paiute Palace is across a mountain range from its closest neighbors, but it's a pretty awful casino.
Mohawk Bingo Palace is worse than Akwesasne Mohawk Casino
Palace Casino in Biloxi is nice, but maybe not as nice as its neighbors
Caesar's Palace. Yeah, well...exception to the rule!

Quote: rdw4potus

Caesar's Palace. Yeah, well...exception to the rule!

In another misinterpretation of old saying, it's the expception that proves the rule :P

So, rdw, I'm guessing that Nevada Palace must have been gone by the time you were actively collecting. Right?

Quote: Doc

So, rdw, I'm guessing that Nevada Palace must have been gone by the time you were actively collecting. Right?

Yessir. Missed it by a couple years. But on the plus side, Eastside Cannery was nice & new when I went there.

I'm surprised how many casinos closed between when you started collecting and when I did. I guess it really is a high turnover industry.

Quote: rdw4potus

Testing:
Palace Station is slightly worse than Strat & Circus Circus
Paiute Palace is across a mountain range from its closest neighbors, but it's a pretty awful casino.
Mohawk Bingo Palace is worse than Akwesasne Mohawk Casino
Palace Casino in Biloxi is nice, but maybe not as nice as its neighbors
Caesar's Palace. Yeah, well...exception to the rule!

Poker Palace is a palace indeed.....

Quote: Doc

State: Nevada
City: Las Vegas
Casino: Nevada Palace

Any Nevada Landing chips out there?

Quote: rdw4potus

Caesars Palace. Yeah, well...exception to the rule!

Not really... the games at CP are far crummier than its neighbors, Bellagio and Mirage.

Quote: Tiltpoul

Not really... the games at CP are far crummier than its neighbors, Bellagio and Mirage.

But the casino is very nice ;)

Quote: Ayecarumba

Any Nevada Landing chips out there?

Quote: Doc (in the Gold Strike post of this thread)

If you think its odd having a giant mock riverboat called the Colorado Belle in Laughlin, what did you think of that giant paddle wheeler called the Navada Landing right out in the desert at Jean? It was demolished several years ago, and along with it, I think the fire went out of the Gold Strike. I dawdled and missed out on getting a souvenir chip from the Nevada Landing.

There are probably some Nevada Landing chips around, just not in my collection. Perhaps rdw4potus got one and will post it when he posts his collection. If not, someone else will surely have one to post when we turn the lead for the thread over to them.

Quote: Doc

There are probably some Nevada Landing chips around, just not in my collection. Perhaps rdw4potus got one and will post it when he posts his collection. If not, someone else will surely have one to post when we turn the lead for the thread over to them.

I missed Nevada Landing. And I agree completely that Gold Strike is sort of sad and all alone now that it's gone.

State: Nevada
City: Las Vegas
Casino: New Frontier

I have complained or mocked several times that my references seem to be inconsistent or in conflict with each other in regard to the history of some of the casinos represented by these chips. I encountered some of the same issues while boning up on today's Casino Chip of the Day, but I can accept a bit of that – the history of this casino goes back more than 80 years.

I have extracted heavily from some short articles in the OnlineNevada encyclopedia that you might find interesting to read in their entirety here and here, plus the Wiki page.

Private nightclubs were popular in Las Vegas in the 1920s and 30s, with some of them hosting legal poker rooms and many of them providing not-quite-so-legal alcohol service. A couple of them opened outside of town on Highway 91 to/from Los Angles, in the area now known at the Las Vegas strip. Among those was the Pair-O-Dice Club, which opened in 1930. The following year, Nevada legalized casino gambling, and clubs – particularly those that had poker rooms – often converted to casinos. The Pair-O-Dice Club received its casino license May 5, 1931.

In 1939, the club was sold and changed its name to the 91 Club, based on the highway number. Now the Wiki page claims that the name had changed to The Ambassador Nightclub in 1936, but I have found no other reference to that. The owner of the 91 Club, Guy McAfee, is credited by historians as the first one to refer to the area as "The Strip."

The place was sold again, and in 1942, a year after the El Rancho hotel became the first casino resort on the strip, the club opened as the Hotel Last Frontier, aka Last Frontier Hotel, the second casino resort on the strip. I have not been able to find a good source as to whether the Pair-O-Dice/Ambassador/91 Club was remodeled with an added hotel or was demolished for all-new construction.

The next sale of the property was in 1951, and a remodeling in 1955 was accompanied by another name change to Hotel New Frontier. I'll leave it to you to review all of the resources and decide whether "Hotel" was or should have been the first or last word in the name. Another "remodeling" in 1964 involved tearing down the original buildings. Just before reopening, in 1967, the place was sold again, that time to Howard Hughes who called it simply the Frontier.

In 1988, Hughes's Summa Corporation sold the place to Margaret Elardi, who had previously owned several hotels in Nevada. I mentioned her when I posted about the Pioneer casino in Laughlin. She spent a decade fighting with the Culinary Workers Union, with whom she refused to sign a contract. They called a strike and picketed the Frontier for more than seven years. The picket lines ended when she sold the place in 1998 to Phil Ruffin, who had agreed in advance to accept the union. In 1999 (according to Wiki), Ruffin changed the name back to The New Frontier.

Ruffin had plans for a major redo of the place himself, but he was approached by El Ad Properties, owners of the Plaza Hotel in New York, who bought it from him in 2007 with plans to build their own Las Vegas Plaza, in spite of the downtown establishment with a similar name. El Ad went so far as imploding the New Frontier, but the Las Vegas Plaza became one more not-to-be-completed-any-time-soon resort on the north strip.

The property is now an empty lot across from the Wynn – an unfitting state for a place where casino gaming had been going on for more than ¾ of a century.

I visited and played at the Ruffin edition of the New Frontier several times, though I never stayed there. I thought it was a very nice casino hotel with a beautiful Atrium Tower with a lovely and very tall (maybe 10 stories?) water wall in its lobby, but the whole place seemed almost abandoned by customers. I could not really understand why a place that seemed to be in such good shape in such a good location had almost nobody inside. I can only attribute it to a lack of effective marketing. Anybody know anything more about that?

The New Frontier chip shown below is from Bud Jones, and according to the MOGH catalog it was issued in 1998. If that date is correct, then Wikipedia must be in error in saying that Ruffin did not change the name back to New Frontier until 1999. I don't know which resource to believe. I do remember that when I got this chip at a crap table in about 2006, I commented to the dealer about what good condition it was in. I asked whether they had just gotten new chips or something, and he told me they had been using them since they opened (under that name) in ____. I don't remember what year he said, but the fact that the chip shows so little wear or damage is a testament to how little action it had seen.

Please post your chips from any of the casinos on this location: New Frontier, Frontier, New Frontier 1st Edition, Last Frontier, or even one of the casinos from the 1930s!

I've never been to the Frontier.

Quote: Doc

Private nightclubs were popular in Las Vegas in the 1920s and 30s, ....

Your talk about these clubs reminded me that earlier in this thread, you questioned the use / meaning of the term "club" in some other establishment's names.

This seems to suggest that they really WERE private clubs due to the illegal activites going on, but retained the "club" name once things became legalized and open to the public.

Quote: Doc

I do remember that when I got this chip at a crap table in about 2006, I commented to the dealer about what good condition it was in. I asked whether they had just gotten new chips or something, and he told me they had been using them since they opened (under that name) in ____. I don't remember what year he said, but the fact that the chip shows so little wear or damage is a testament to how little action it had seen.

I have a few of these types of chips from other casinos. I believe they are made from a different material than other chips and that these hold up a LOT longer to wear and tear. That's not to say that your theory about no action isn't a contributing factor.

I agree that the plastic injection molded chips seem to wear/ding less on the edges, and their smooth surfaces tend to collect much less grime. For chips with similar amounts of wear, though, I prefer the clay composite chips with details molded into them.

I know this thread is going in a certain sequence but I do want to let you know about the Eldorado in Henderson which just celebrated its 50th anniversary with special commemorative chips.

Quote: Doc

El Ad went so far as imploding the New Frontier, but the Las Vegas Plaza became one more not-to-be-completed-any-time-soon resort on the north strip.

How many such disasters can be explained by saying "It seemed like a good idea at the time"?

IMO if the Sahara re-opens and one of the many stalled, moribund projects manages to take off, the north of the Strip might survive until the next recovery (there's going to be another recession next year). Otherwise, we may yet see CC and the Strat go under.

Here's my "New Frontier", which has the same design as the $1. I wondered if the low traffic in the place was due to the picketing. My father, who was a union man, was a little upset when I shared that I had visited the property.

I have the same chip as Doc as well as one from "The Frontier" that I snagged from a craps table on January 24, 1982. How do I know the exact date you ask? Glad you asked!

A group of friends and I went to Vegas Super Bowl weekend and we wanted to watch the game in a casino ballroom. We had heard that the Frontier was hosting a watching party so we went there, only to find out it was for invited guests only. Not to be deterred, we saw that as guests were checking in they were given a badge to wear inside. One of my buddies who had more guts than I did walked right in past the check-in desk like he belonged, and then inside asked some guys if he could borrow their badges. A few trips in and out and soon we were all inside sitting at a nice table ready to enjoy the game. That was the year Joe Montana drove the 49er's down the field to beat the Bengals...great game!

After the game most of my buddies wanted to play craps and we got on a hot table, and that was when I snagged the chip below

Thanks for posting those chips, Ayecarumba and Johnzimbo. That Frontier chips was issued in 1980, per MOGH, so it was only a year or two old when you got it. Do you know who was the manufacturer? MOGH doesn't say, and I can't see any identifying info.

Most of the things that I picked up in 1982 are long gone by now.

Quote: Doc

Thanks for posting those chips, Ayecarumba and Johnzimbo. That Frontier chips was issued in 1980, per MOGH, so it was only a year or two old when you got it. Do you know who was the manufacturer? MOGH doesn't say, and I can't see any identifying info.

Good question Doc. Both the MOGH site and my price guide list the mold as "House" and the price guide just says House Mold (Individual Casino's Logo). Pretty vague I would say

The Frontier used some Paulson chips during that era. Both the surface texture of your chip and the inner and outer circles remind me of some Paulson chips, just with the casino name instead of hats and canes in the ring around the inlay. Take a look at your chip compared to the Nevada Palace chip that I posted yesterday -- even the center inlays look similar. Do you have access to a UV light to see whether a hidden image might pop up? There wasn't one on the Nevada Palace chip, but it had the hats and canes molded in.

The game Montana drove down the field was in 1989

Quote: Beardgoat

The game Montana drove down the field was in 1989

You are correct, my mistake. The memories get jumbled as I age hehe

Quote: Johnzimbo

You are correct, my mistake. The memories get jumbled as I age hehe

Sooo...were you there in '82 to see the greatest goal line stand in superbowl history, or in '89 to see the greatest drive in superbowl history? :-)

I don't quite get this "collecting" chips ... unless you wind up actually selling them how do you turn a profit on them?

Quote: FleaStiff

I don't quite get this "collecting" chips ... unless you wind up actually selling them how do you turn a profit on them?

It's usually not driven by a profit incentive. It's merely a souvenier collection.

Sure, you could just as well go to the gift shop and purchase a shot glass or coffee mug and collect those, but chips have a certain artistic value. Plus chips are small enough to allow for large collections. And if you stick to $1 chips, the only way to get a cheaper collection is to steal matchbooks or pens or something....

Quote: rdw4potus

Sooo...were you there in '82 to see the greatest goal line stand in superbowl history, or in '89 to see the greatest drive in superbowl history? :-)

82...I truly don't recall where I watched the 89 game...but it was probably in Vegas too :)

Quote: DJTeddyBear

Quote: FleaStiff

I don't quite get this "collecting" chips ... unless you wind up actually selling them how do you turn a profit on them?

It's usually not driven by a profit incentive. It's merely a souvenier collection.

That is correct, at least in my case. My wife and I used to pick up T-shirts and coffee mugs during our travels, but how many of those can you really use? Once you have thirty or forty, they take up a lot of storage space, unlike my chips, which are always on display and not in the way at all. I have noted before that my chips are under the glass top on my desk. Back last October I posted a photo of the collection as it stood then. I have added just 19 chips since then, so the array is only a little more compact. By the way, that post included a list of all of the chips and was the answer I alluded to earlier in this thread as to how someone might know what my next Casino Chip of the Day might be. That would still work, except for the new chips and for the fact that I now have tribal casinos' chips sorted by states rather than as a group.

I suspect that all of the chips that I accumulate will still be together, unsold, when I kick the bucket. Then, they will likely be dumped in the trash by my wife or kids without anyone going to the effort to see whether they have any value. Personally, considering what I am collecting, I am not sure there would be monetary value beyond the face value, and perhaps even less than that. There certainly wouldn't be sufficient value in a bunch of $1 chips to try to redeem the ones that are still valid, so any financial recovery would require finding someone who wanted to buy the set for their own collection of probably-never-to-be-sold chips.

Quote: Doc

That is correct, at least in my case. My wife and I used to pick up T-shirts and coffee mugs during our travels, but how many of those can you really use? Once you have thirty or forty, they take up a lot of storage space, unlike my chips, which are always on display and not in the way at all. I have noted before that my chips are under the glass top on my desk. Back last October I posted a photo of the collection as it stood then. I have added just 19 chips since then, so the array is only a little more compact. By the way, that post included a list of all of the chips and was the answer I alluded to earlier in this thread as to how someone might know what my next Casino Chip of the Day might be. That would still work, except for the new chips and for the fact that I now have tribal casinos' chips sorted by states rather than as a group.

I suspect that all of the chips that I accumulate will still be together, unsold, when I kick the bucket. Then, they will likely be dumped in the trash by my wife or kids without anyone going to the effort to see whether they have any value. Personally, considering what I am collecting, I am not sure there would be monetary value beyond the face value, and perhaps even less than that. There certainly wouldn't be sufficient value in a bunch of $1 chips to try to redeem the ones that are still valid, so any financial recovery would require finding someone who wanted to buy the set for their own collection of probably-never-to-be-sold chips.

I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss the value of your collection Doc. Some of the chips Johnzimbo has posted are now worth quite a bit more than their face value on the open market. I would not be surprised if some of the specimens in your collection, especially the rarer ones from the smaller joints, grow exponentially in value too.

Quote: Doc

Back last October I posted a photo of the collection as it stood then. I have added just 19 chips since then, so the array is only a little more compact. By the way, that post included a list of all of the chips and was the answer I alluded to earlier in this thread as to how someone might know what my next Casino Chip of the Day might be.

Aha! I never figured out to what you were referring with that. Now it makes sense, since I wasn't on the forums last October.

I started collecting chips around 1981 when I turned 21, mostly because I had collected baseball cards and beer bottles and both of those were taking up quite a bit of space...and because every chip is different and makes for a colorful display. I have about half of my collection displayed on my home office wall...

Johnzimbo -

I'm suddenly more interested in your Hole card display, as well as the plaque above it.