I'm a genetically honed collector. I started with coins at age nine. An uncle asked me what I wanted for my birthday.
I said a 1931 S penny. The pawn shop guy said that's 35 cents. My uncle said he's not paying 35 cents for one penny.
I ended up with a 1864 two cent piece for 12 cents. Later in life, as a newsman, I had both weekly stamp and coin
and antique columns. In January 1971 I spent six weeks in Las Vegas. Even got to spend 20 minutes in Tina
Turner's dressing room attempting, among other thing, to sell Ike a $700 dollar back page on the Las Vegas
Free Press. Later learned he had lost $10,000 the night before rolling dice and management offered him
a way out by signing up another year with the same contract. After six weeks I had sold only one ad (Dunkin Donuts }
for about $60 dollars commission and decided to head for Los Angeles. It didn't occur to me to pocket even one chip.
Looking back I can't believe how I side stepped that compulsion. About 30 years later I poketed a $1.00 chip from
the Barona Casino in San Diego. I later learned that San Diego County had 9 casinos. And I wanted one from each.
Then, I learned Calfornia had 56 Indian casinos and I thought what a collection that would be!! A year later on a visit
to my home state I learned 60 percent of the world's chips were manufactured in Maine and that I grew up two
miles from the Burt Company which is rated as the pioneer in the field and never knew it. As club member R-7362 my
collection is still modest but with the collecting goes the great enjoyment and exposure to present and past history of
the gaming world which I believe ranks 6th in the world economy. My favorite chip is Mom's (Golden Club-Austin), a $5
arodie. Mom was a woman who played "Blackjack" with truckers for 47 years. got written up in National Geographic (1980's)
and had a son who was the last convicted horse thief in America. As an item it has a lot more personality than that 1931 S penny.
Bob Denbow.