RICHARD JAHN, THE MONACO CHIP MAN!

So Richard Jahn, member of the Casino Chip & Gaming Token Collectors Club, Inc., (CC>CC) member number R6361, Surfside Beach, South Carolina was working on his book on the Casino Chips of Monaco when the phone rang! It was Cecil Chandler a reporter for Channel 13, WBTW! It seems that a fellow member by the name of Kenny Francis, member number R6938, a fellow South Carolinian, is an acquaintance of Cecil’s and an avid poker player/collector/golfer/football fan, they got to talking about chip collecting and mentioned Richard’s name and that’s all it took!

Lights, camera and action, with a videographer and a sound man Cecil made it to Richard’s house and wanted to see his chips! Mr. Jahn has been collecting chips for 25 years so that was an easy task. Not so easy to get them on camera but easy to see in person.

Richard collects those little, mostly round checks or chips as many people call them. They are the “coin of the realm” inside a casino. Richard has a substantial collection from Atlantic City, Las Vegas, California and his most exciting collection of casino chips including plaques (an interesting sub category of chips/checks (cheques), usually rectangular and fairly large and very popular in Europe), jetons (another word for chips/checks) from Monaco!

In fact Richard has become quite an authority on the chips/cheques/jetons/plaques of the Casinos of Monaco of which there have been a few starting back more than the last century and further! Casinos in Monte Carlo/Monaco date back to the late 19th century and are still going strong today. Originally the playground of royalty with names like Cafe de Paris Casino, SBM/Loews, Monte Carlo Bay Hotel & Resort, Monte Carlo Sporting Club & Casino, Sun Casino – Monte Carlo Grand Hotel and the Monte Carlo Casino with its different areas, including the American Salon, the Salle Europeene, Salle Blanche, Salle Rose and Salles Privees rooms!

So much so that Richard is now getting ready to publish a book on the casinos of Monaco! Mr. Jahn is trying to fill in the blanks of his Monaco chip collection and therein lies the rub to date! The Casinos of Monaco have not been cooperating; although they have a collection inside the doors of their chips on a wall they won’t allow pictures! So Richard Jahn keeps searching for those illusive chips, putting out the clarion call to his fellow collectors, appearing on TV with pieces of his collection and hoping that there is a way to finish the book with all of the Casinos of Monaco and the pictures of all of their chips!

After appearing on TV Richard received numerous phone calls from fellow collectors but nary a lead for those missing chips to make his book complete!