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Shoot, you know I meant comparatively to today. Guess Reno saw it's share of high rollers in those days as it was still on a par with Vegas, I'd guess. Still more than two boxes boxes of these sawtooth TR King purties would seem to be overkill.
Pretty regular sight in those days was Harold Smith Sr. on a toot and bolting out the front door of his "store" and taking a 10K marker across the street at the Horseshoe. Perhaps he tried his luck next door at Lincoln Fitzgerald's place. Fitz' other high stakes player, Lever Redfield was a wheel player so he wouldn't be crowding Sr. at the craps table. That's the occasion where this chip may have served. My favorite guess at the use of this chip is as a marker for the big money players of the day. Notice the single numeral stamped on the inlay of this quarter-pie. A school of thought is that these chips were used as markers and the number stamped on the surface was perhaps recorded into the ledger on a player's credit line. These chips have been found inscribed #1 - #199. These bookend numbered chips live in the collection of the top Nevada Club Reno collector but #4 sits on my desk these days, thus validating my puny persuit of the artifacts of Lincoln Fitzgerald and his Nevada Clubs.
The other chip seems to be a singleton at this point. Quite the ego stroke when you possess such a creature in one of your speciality collections. 
This "CC" chip has #197 stamped into it. If anyone has a similar chip, let the hobby know about it! Mystery piece for sure. Trial chip for the homemade marker system? Coat check? Tahoe location use only? Where are the rest of these puppies, #1 - #xxx?
Preview of upcoming post! 
We were sitting on a bench in the sun waiting for our table to open up. I caught her gaze.
"You know I told you I had a killer convention this year. Got a bunch of great chips and met up with a ton of my friends and made a bunch of new ones. Won a lot of money on the tables because I'm a really lucky person. Look how lucky I am now to finally be here with you!"
She gave me a "You got to be kidding" look and looked away. "No really," I said, "I'm feeling so smug, I think my head might explode! Jeeze, here I am sitting with the prettiest girl in the place..."
She snorted, "Oh come on!" and looked away again. I've since come to know this means she's blushing. I find it amazing that an idiot like me can make this woman of such accomplishment and experience blush so easily. Sigh.
Later on she told me that when she lived in Reno she worked in the accounting office of XXXXXX Club. "Wow! Really? Was XXXX XXXXXX alive when you were there?" Yep! Oh man, living the Chipper Life!
Later!
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