Back to Vegas for today's chip -- a 50 center from the International, 1st issue, N7638, released in 1969.

I skipped ahead in my alphabetical sequence to pick this one off, since it leads into a couple of Hilton chips, which are next up. Here goes the whole purple thing again. The Flamingo releases their 1st purple 50 center (solid HCE, unusual black inlay) in 1967. Either the International folks got a serious case of chip envy, or maybe they just contracted with the same chip designers. What happened? 2 years later a solid purple HCE $.50 chip with an unusual ORANGE inlay is released by International. That fooled 'em.

But whose complaining? I think the chip is great. The colors work - bright orange with a nice yellow band for the casino name, text in purple to tighten it up with the chip color, and even a hint of the marquee in the logo.

But there's trouble abrewing. As we saw from the Flamingo experience, the Hilton gang don't take kindly to just any casino releasing purple 50 centers... stay tuned.