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John Benedict quoted the following
"The two other purchases I made later on were from CC and somewhere else outside of Reno, and both women said Villa Sierra one screwerd up woman called it Sierra Club grin ) so I never accepted the LV story. I was also told that the mold goes as far back as 1937 and that they were used at a few illegal clubs (the club names were unknown to me) and two were described as being die-cut metal inlay."
Who was a one time owner of the Villa Sierra? Virgil Smith
Who is Virgil Smith: He owned Cobrandt's in Reno and was a partner (bankrolled) to Bill Harrah. And was also involved in numerous clubs around Northern Nevada.
Being that the distributor was from Reno and Virgil Smith was from Reno (Actually born in Lovelock, NV) and the chips were found in Northern Nevada. And the initials on the chips are "VS", and they were originally attributed to the Villa Sierra. I am sure the Villa Sierra was named that way for a reason, it would be the same initials as Virgil Smith. The club was opened from 1944-52.
Northern Nevada gets overlooked quite a bit; but I consider early Northern Nevada chips more historical than early LV chips. In my eyes modern casino style gaming was perfected in Northern Nevada. Just my thoughts.
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