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...at which time I borrowed the first of my ashtray collection. If you can believe it, I took them home to use and didn't start putting them away until a few years later. Of course, the good ones ended up broken and thrown away.

Winning a few Rio silver strikes in 1995 started my strike collection off. Somewhere around that time, I began saving matchbooks, pens and slotcards as well.

Back in 2002, the first chips I actually bought were the star chips and the 3-links chip (Oddfellows?) followed a few days later. Casino chips and tokens soon followed.

I was directed to the Chipboard by the late Michael Par (who sold me the chips above) and joined the CC>CC at the end of 2002.

And the rest, as they say, is history...
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