Well, maybe they're from The Godfather II. I believe they are, but haven't been able to authenticate them.

Here's the story. Some years ago (when Cuban chips were virtually unknown in the U.S.) there was a guy from Los Angeles who claimed he had some chips from Cuba, given to him by his mother, who travelled there pre-Castro. I managed to get hold of him and arrange to have him meet with Gene Grossblatt and me.

We met, Gene and I each bought the two chips the person brought with him (for far too much!), and listened to his stories. He said his mother was in the motion picture industry and used to go to Cuba to play. Knew some high rollers, he said.

He was going to find out how many chips his mother had, then get back to us. In the meantime, Gene decided that his chip(s) were filthy, and began bathing them. The label(s) in the center of the chip came off when the chip was washed, which is how we know what's underneath. The $1 is actually from the Crystal Bay Club, Tahoe, and I think the $25 is from a Caribbean casino.

As I recall, Archie may have had some dealings with the same person, although I don't recall whether he purchased any of the bogus chips. There was quite a stink at the time, and the guy melted away, his tail tucked between his legs.

Having spent so much for the chips though, I kept thinking about them and about the situation and the stories the guy had told. The more I thought about it, the more I came to believe that the chips were actually movie props, most likely created for the grand casino scene on New Year's Eve in "The Godfather, Part II."

That was the only movie of even close to recent vintage set in Cuba, with casinos, and the Capri was the casino mentioned in The Godfather II. The chips don't show in the movie, but that happened with a number of other movies for which chips were made. Sometimes the closeup gambling scenes were cut before release.

I wrote to Francis Ford Coppola at Zoetrope Studios about the chips, but never received a reply. I followed up with an e-mail to his assistant, but didn't receive the courtesy of a response.

If someone knows Coppola or has an idea how to get a response from the studio, please let me know and perhaps we can solve this mystery.

Michael