The Sahara opened its doors on October 7th 1952 constructed on part of the site of former Club Bingo property.

They were using these beautiful building chips up until the early 1960’s. They Chip Guide indicates there were around 11,000 of each of these produced. Today there are very few of those around. I have only seen two of these available, one grey and one of the red, in all of my collecting years.

In 1961 Del Web purchased the Sahara so I would say its safe to say these chips were introduced and made for the casino in 1961 when he took over over the Sahara Hotel & Casino as the new owner, hence his name on the chips.

This other $25.00 chip below, $25.00 HCE Genie Chip, is a bit of a Mystery ..... The chip guide says it was introduced in the 1960’s with no other information regarding the date released, quantity or if they were ever used on the floor. The very unusual thing about this chip is that I never found or saw one one that was without a drill hole. All of these drilled chips that I have seen and in my collection look brand new, never used. They come up from time to time but are little harder to find than the Del Web Chip.

The coin in center chips were introduced in the 1980’s along with the Fuchsia Genie Chips. This is when Paul Lowden took over ownership of the Sahara in 1982.

The palm tree chips came out around 1995, when Bill Barrett took over ownership of the Sahara. They also introduced the NASCAR Cafe during that period along with mostly $5.00 specialty chips but no $25.00's

So the questions that remain unanswered are as follows;

When were the $25.00 HCE Genie Chips Introduced ?

Were they introduced and used on the Casino Floor ?

Why have only drilled specimens showed up in collections ?

Were they all Manufacture Samples that ended up getting one drill hole in them instead of the typical three edge clip ?

Where did all of the Drilled or Un-drilled chips go ?

I am planing on meeting a couple of Sahara Historians in June while out for the show to learn more about the History and to get some other questions answered similar to this one.

Any information posted as a reply is appreciated.

Keep on Chippin !

Doug

p.s. All chips images courtesy of the Chip Guide.