Once upon a time there was a game in Cuba called "Monte y Dado", literary translation is "Hill & Dice". I am sure this had a different meaning. Very little is known about this game; how it was played, where it came from and variations. I interviewed many older gentleman from Cuba, including many who worked in casinos, and nobody new how it as played.

We do know that the game started in mid 1880's in Cuba. Cubans claimed it was invented in Cuba. In Uruguay they played a game with similar name. Cubans also claim that the Uruguayan game came from Cuba! (probably true)

The game was said to be very addicting. It was played in clubs, homes, cafes and sidewalks. Apparently the game was played with cards, dice and 7 chips with specific denominations. There were some variations in number of chips and the denominations used, but very little. In the non-club settings the chips were simple blank chips with the numbers written on it by the players or "printed", we never found any of those. The wealthier clubs at the time used high quality bone or Ivory. What you see here is part of the relatively few found. The famous Tropicana casino tried to incorporate a casino version of the game, with the chips having the name of MyD, but it was not well received and the experiment failed.

Almost 18-20 years ago, those of us who collected Cuban Gaming chips and Gaming memorabilia were lucky enough to get our hands in most of the Ivory or high quality bone that existed at the time. Most of them were part of the Monte y Dado game. Few of these Ivory/Bone chips were not used for the MyD game. A group of "full sets of MyD chips" were found together in same location. Obviously the very few of us jumped on them immediately, with me and Avee probably the only ones who were able to obtain 2 sets each. The rest were obtained by 3 or 4 other collectors here and a couple in the hands of two Cuban collectors.

No new Ivory/bone chips have been found in Cuba for at least a decade.

The scans below are:

First: The set of MyD game found as a set. The fourth chip has a 60 on it, but difficult to see. It is much very seen in other side.

Second: Chips used for MyD, high quality bone or Ivory, but found separately. The Ivory "3" chip was used in a game called "Tresillo". I have NO information about this game, only a couple of those chips.

Third: More of the same for your enjoyment. (I have more but this is a good representation, do not want to tire you guys out).