Gene,
I believe it is from an illegal casino that was located in the Midwest. Missouri, possibly Illinois or Michigan. Its name was Cape Jurado. (sp)

It does not take a genius to figure out the chip is not a Vegas chip.

1) It is a small key. The Thunderbird did not have any small key mold table chips. When they purchased their "wheels" they were given small key roulette chips as was the custom back in the earlier days. However, no table chips with the small key mold were ever made. Don't let anyone feed you that bull about they haven't been found - yeah, right!

2) No one can show me any Nevada chip that has it's denomination displayed as ( or ) or >1<.
It was either 1.00 or $1.00 or $1.00 with the zeros underlined or just a plain old 1. It goes against Nevada tradition to put brackets or whatever around a number.

3) Too many inserts for an older Nevada chip two, three or maybe even four but not a zillion .

4) The "bird" is a common indian symbol. Just because the Thunderbird used it outside their casino is no indication it belonged to them.

5) James C. sold the chips to Rene but kept the $25.00. If they were Vegas I don't think he would have sold them to someone else. He would have sold them himself. .

I have more but I'm saving it for a possible article if I start writing again. Best, Jim