As most of you know, our club is an American Numismatic Assoc affiliste, and since the annual convention was in my hometown this year, I decided to stop by today to see what goes on. Only spent about 2 hours on the bourse as there were only two dealers that I could find with casino items. Even these were not displayed prominently and I still get the feeling that the die-hard coin dealer thinks casino chips and tokens are beneath him.

The sales area was about twice the size of what we have had recently at the Aladdin. Nice wide isles, too. However, the show seemed quiet compared to the hectic activity and crowded aisles I'm used to at a chip show. I was able to pick up a dozen or so chips I needed as well as a few slot club cards from
A.C.

The ANA is big on exhibits, and there were probably a hundred or more glass-front cases filled with member exhibits. It helps me to see how exhibits are prepared in an older organization; maybe exhibits will catch on with CC+GTCC this year since I believe Janice is giving special attention to the subject. Interesting that there was an exhibit category for Casino Chip and Tokens. There was one entry, a single case of mother-of-pearl game counters. No casino items at all.

There are numerous talks by specialized experts at these shows. I didn't have time to attend any, but would sure like to see something like that done at our conventions as well. I know a couple of years, we did have chip manufacturers' representatives speak on chip design and manufacture. We could certainly have presentations by collectors of specialized areas. Wonder how such would be attended? One thing about the ANA show, it runs 5-6 days, rather that the 3 days for CC etc., I know it takes me 3 days just to visit all the dealers tables. Would there be interest from other members in adding a day or two to the convention duration? I always stay a week anyway, and would certainly be there as long as the doors are open.

DonL