In the absence of any blood relatives, we were Jim’s family, and of course, his friends. Those of us that collect casino memorabilia (and others that were in his numismatic community) will miss him dearly. Before his passing, Jim decided to bequeath his TITO collection to the . In doing so, the Club and all current and future members will have a tangible reminder of Jim’s kindness and generosity. Jim was a exceptionally nice person.

As well as his passion to acquire and document darn near everything possible about TITO’s, a relatively ‘new-to-the-hobby’ collectible, Jim also had another collecting passion. That was the pursuit of Shuffle Master branded chips. In doing so, Jim purposely bought some stock in the company, which afforded him access to the annual shareholder meetings. Those events typically had chips waiting to be harvested as they would set-up a “game room” to try out their new offerings. Jim was also a regular at the Las Vegas G2E events, again, at the ready, to harvest any Shuffle Master branded chips he could find.

Last year, when Jim decided that he would not attend the Shuffle Master annual Board Meeting (in Las Vegas) he contacted me and asked if I was going. And if so, could I harvest chips for him. Regrettably, I could not go, but I suggested asking my wife Pam. As Pam and I do not have stock with Shuffle Master ( ) Jim then needed to assign his voting rights to Pam, i.e., provide her with his proxy vote. This meant a trip to his broker, getting a notarization and other complicated maneuverings. And with everything in-place, Pam attended to event.

While her harvesting only produced a “SHFL” branded snapper, Jim was pleased to add it to his collection.

(scan courtesy of ChipGuide)

Like many others, I have quite a string of email threads with Jim. While mine deal mostly with TITO’s, Shuffle Master chips and Native American chips (in my neck of the woods) there is a remarkable amount of reference material in his many newsletters of the Southern California Collectors Club meetings.

Jim’s illness (and the diagnosis) was quite sudden and quick. I would like to express my appreciation to the several chipper friends of Jim that stepped up to assist him in some of his final preparations. I could only watch from afar, and had a brief conversation or two with him towards the end. Without any immediate family, Jim was helped by several who cared.

My thanks go to them, and thanks also go to Jim for his records keeping, scans and being a true gentleman.

Jim Noll will be missed.

Jim