I thought I'd change things up just a little this weekend, and show a couple of other collections that I have. Outside of my baseball/hockey card collection, probably my favorite collection would be my casino chips. This started off and on about 20 years ago when I was working in the casino industry, and naturally when one works in a casino, one invariably ends up playing in a casino.
I had never even thought about collecting chips until I spied a co-worker putting one in his pocket one day while we were at Turning Stone Casino, which is just east of Syracuse, NY. I asked him why he was putting it away, and he told me that he collected chips from casinos. I thought that this was a great idea for a collection, and pretty cheap as well, so off I went.
While I don't actively pursue new chips for my collection currently, I still have chips from about 40 different casinos in my collection. Some of them were personally obtained, some of them were picked up at casinos for me by friends. The picture that you see below is a frame that my wife bought me for Christmas a few years back, which houses 35 of my favorite chips. If you look close enough, there are various denominations in there. Mostly $1 chips, a $2.50 chip and several $5 chips are in the display case.
I also have other chips that are "loose", not housed in any display case or covering. I keep these handy just in case I get the urge to keep my hands busy with something else besides cards.
The Hard Rock chip on the left is from one of my favorite casinos, which I frequent on each trip down to South Florida. The Binion's chip in the center is the last chip from $80 I lost at a poker table on my honeymoon. That chip will always be a reminder that I played in one of the most famous poker rooms in the world, and the 4 hours I spent in there will always be remembered. I've never been to Bally's in Las Vegas, but I just wanted to show one example of a chip that made its way home to me from one of my very generous co-workers.
Maybe one day I'll pickup some more chips, but this is one hobby that is secondary to card collecting for me. With the proliferation of new casinos opening everywhere (hopefully in the county where I live before too long as well), there should always be a new supply of interesting new chips to look at and collect.
thanks for reading, Robert
hey Robert - Cool collectibles. I have a handful of old (60's) chips from various Vegas casinos, most of which are gone now. My mom was about to toss it all out awhile back and I convinced her to give them to me! I put them in a small frame over the bar. They add a little class to the joint.
ReplyDeletepoker! awesome collection man!
ReplyDeleteThat's a pretty cool collection
ReplyDeleteLove it when bloggers show off collections outside of cardboard... very cool!
ReplyDelete