Early chips made of mother-of-pearl and ivory gave way in the 1880s to shellac and clay composites with anti-counterfeiting embossed surfaces. These diverse items are made from materials ranging from gilded silver to clay. Overnight, a once sleepy field of exonumia was reborn and began to grow in size, created to serve gambler and tourist alike. Because they resembled coins so much, and because many designs were flirtatious if not naughty, many casino customers took them home.

These new pieces were coin-like and often coin-sized in their design and were made out of typical coin metals like silver and copper-nickel. Gambling tokens, cheques, chips and jetons have been available to collect for centuries, but casino numismatics didn’t take off until Nevada casinos began making their own tokens and strikes in the late 1960s.

Land-based, floating and cruise line casinos around the world soon followed suit in creating their own tokens in reaction to the silver coin shortage, and an entire field of exonumia was born anew. Silver prices were so high the casinos could not keep enough silver dollars on hand. The catapulting event was a 1965 change in Nevada law that allowed casinos to make their own gaming tokens.

Gaming chips or “cheques” have been part of gambling for centuries, but collecting them and related items like tokens has enjoyed a significant following only since the 1970s.

Casino 1 dollar .999