Casino chip collecting
Casino chip collecting is the practice of intentionally taking casino chips (also called "checks") from Casino premises or trading or collecting online, or in person, for the purpose of collection. Casino chip collecting is a variety of exonumia, or coin collecting. Before it became a more serious hobby, casino chip collecting was simply a case of people keeping them as souvenirs from a casino they may visit. The biggest boost to the hobby came with the creation of the online auction site eBay. eBay has now become the most popular way to collect and trade casino chips with listings in the casino category regularly including more than 20,000 items for sale.
Casino chip collecting became increasingly popular during the 1980s, as evidenced by the sale of chips through several casino and collecting newsletters. Bill Borland's Worldwide Casino Exchange (early 1980s) had a casino story each issue and dozens of old chips for sale. Likewise, Al W Moe's Casino and Gaming Chips magazine ran for several years in the mid-1980s and attracted hundreds of subscribers. Each issue featured stories and pictures from old Nevada casinos and included photos of old, collectible chips.
Archie Black established the Casino Chip & Gaming Tokens Collectors Club (CC>CC) in 1988 in response to the continuing evolution and popularity of chip collecting. Membership in the club includes an annual subscription to the club's magazine, Casino Collectible News, now in its 26th year. The magazine has won six First Place Awards from the American Numismatic Association for Outstanding Specialty Numismatic Publication. The club held its first annual convention at the Aladdin Hotel and Casino in 1992. The 22nd annual convention wrapped up in June and the 23rd annual convention to be held at South Point Hotel, Casino & Spa June 25th-June 27th, 2015.
As the number of collectors grew, the creation of an official grading system was viewed as being a useful tool in part of the process to help determine the collectible value of the chips, as opposed to the face value they can also represent. In 2003, members of the CC>CC's Standards and Archives Committee agreed on a grading system that would be used worldwide. There are many published price guides, but two in particular are more widely used by casino chip collectors. The Official U.S. Casino Chip Price Guide, now in its 4th edition, covers chips from casinos in Nevada, Atlantic City, New Jersey, Colorado, Deadwood, South Dakota and the several Midwest States that permit Riverboat casinos. The Chip Rack, now in its 15th edition, attempts to include all chips and checks issued by casinos in the State of Nevada. Some chips are considered high-value and have a listed value as high as $50,000. During their 2014 convention, a $5 chip from the Golden Goose SOLD for $75,000, and a $5 chip from the Lucky Casino SOLD for $52,500.
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