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Meeting chaired by club Secretary Larry Nakata as President Carl and Vice President Glen Dean were out of state that day.

Door Prize: A set of uncirculated 1982 Seven (7) Variety Set of Lincoln Cents won by Paul Lightner.

Membership Prize: A 2009-S Jefferson 5c graded ANACS Prf 70 (First Day Issue) won by Dusan Kovac

Briefing on Fur Rondy Coin Show: Feb 22nd/23rd 10 am to 6 pm at the University Center,

• March 1st/2nd 11 am to 5 pm. Same location.

• Our coin club event will be posted in the Fur Rondy Guide (that will be coming out about mid February). The club will have a 1/8 page ad in the Fur Rondy Guide.

• Table fees to be determined at the ACC Board meeting on Jan 15th. Fees will be posted in the next club newsletter (which will come out in the last week of January).

• We have a limited number of tables. Interested members wishing tables should be prepared to put in their reservations for tables once announced in the newsletter.

As new business, our club elections will be coming up in which club officers will be elected at our March 4th membership meeting. Members wishing to serve in the positions of President, Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer, and two board positions are encouraged to submit their names for the election.

For the position of club President, since Carl has served two consecutive years (as President), this position will need to be filled by another member. Our club by-laws require that the President cannot serve a 3rd consecutive term. Per our club by-laws, Carl will then step into the 3rd Board member seat following our March 4th election.

Larry Nakata then gave the presentation on the subject of "Nevada Gaining Tokens".

Following the presentation, the month raffle coin.... an 1854 Liberty Seated 25c in XF condition was won by Wynetta Nichols.

The club's monthly auction then followed. For 2014, the monthly auctions will consist of:

• A silent auction in which lots estimated at $9 or less will be part of that silent auction, and

• A live auction in which lots estimated at $10 or more will be part of that live auction.

• Using this format will keep the meeting time shorter... since the live auction does take a considerable time.

Following the auction, meeting concluded.

Next membership meeting will be on Tuesday, Feb 4th 7 PM at the Central Lutheran Church.

Larry Nakata/ Secretary

January 15th Anchorage Coin Club
Board Meeting

Back in Year 2009, I gave a presentation on the subject of "Gaming Tokens". Some of you were present for that presentation.

I wanted to expand the presentation to include "Nevada Gaming Tokens".

To start, some background on "Gaming Tokens".

Essentially, a gaming token is nothing more than a gambling chip that you see in casinos around the world. These gaming chips come in various denominations.

Here in the United States, gaming tokens come in two varieties:

• Gaming tokens you see on casino tables for games such as blackjack, poker, roulette, baccarat, etc. Such tokens are gambling chips that are made of compressed molded clay with a secret composition of other materials mixed with the clay. The process used to make these gambling chips is a trade secret proprietary to the manufacturer. This is done to prevent counterfeiting of gambling chips.

• The second variety are the metallic dollar gaming coins used by casinos for their slot machines. I happen to collect these slot machine $1 gaming tokens (coins). I've been collecting them over the years from various casinos around the country. There are other metallic gaming coins of higher denominations used by these casinos as well. But today.... if you go to a typical casino..... you'll find that slot machines have been converted to using paper currency or paper slips provided by the slot machine. You just don't see very many coin operated slot machines anymore.

The history of the gaming token goes back to 1626 when the first gambling house was legalized in Venice, Italy.

The so-called "poker chips" (gaming tokens) we see today really did not come into their own until the 1800s when you see the game of poker being played on Mississippi riverboats.

• The gold dust, gold nuggets, coins, and paper currency used for gambling was to give way to these "poker chips" which were made of ivory, bone, wood, paper, ceramic, and finally a chip composed of clay and shellac. By the turn of the 19th century, there were companies specializing in the production of clay composition "poker chips".

• As stated before, the process used to make these chips was a trade secret proprietary to the manufacturer. This was done to avoid counterfeits.

Among the features used to avoid counterfeiting were:

• The composition of material used to make the chip.

• Use of multi-colored clay to give that unique chip edge (called the edge spot) effect you see on a typical table gaming chip. Such edge spotting is distinctive to the particular casino.

• The artwork of the chip being of high photographic resolution.

• How the printed graphics are inlayed onto the center of the chip.

• The latest generation of high denomination chips use RFID technology with an RF semiconductor imbedded into the chip. In fact, some of the higher denomination chips (such as the $25K chips- for high rollers are rectangular in shape with individual serial numbers unique to the casino).

• There are chips that go as high as $1 million with one or two casinos rumored to have a $10 million chip.

For the most part, the typical table gaming chips are called compression molded chips since they are placed in a special mold that heats and compresses the chips at approximately 10,000 psi at 350 degrees F.

On the matter of the metallic gaming coin..... for years the U.S. silver dollar was traditionally used for the coin operated slot machine. Use of the Morgan and Peace dollars for slot machine use came to an end in 1964 when U.S. silver dollars were selling at a premium well above the value of the coin. This was due to its silver content.

• This caused the Nevada Gaming Commission to pass regulations permitting casinos to issue their own private dollar denomination metal tokens (coins).

• This gave rise to private mints that specialized in making these dollar "slot machine" coins..... among them the Franklin Mint.

• The dollar "slot machine" corns were made for casino use from 1965-1969.... at which time the US Mint came out with the "Eisenhower (Ike) Dollar".

• For a while the casinos shifted back to use of the "Ike Dollar" for slot machine use. But the United States government decided that the "Ike Dollar" was not meant to be used for slot machines and allowed the casinos to go back to minting their own one dollar tokens (coins).

• The "Ike Dollar" was phased out in 1979 at which time casinos converted over to their own dollar tokens (coins).

To prevent counterfeiting of such dollar tokens, the manufacturers used a variety of security measures to include use of different edge reeding patterns on the coin.

Today, the metallic dollar coins are giving way to new technology in which you can use U.S. paper currency or paper slips to play slot machines.

• There was a time when you could go to a casino.... look for the change lady to get a roll of quarters or a bunch of one dollar slot machine token coins..... and ask her which machine was hot and ready to "pay-off'.

• You don't see those ladies anymore giving out change.

• It's almost impossible to find casinos anymore that use one dollar token coins. None on the machines, but maybe on the gaming tables.

Even the higher denomination slot machine tokens ($5, $10, $20, $100, and $500) have given way to paper currency.

Casinos that go out of business destroy all of their gambling chips and metallic tokens.... leaving only those specimens that the gambler keeps as a souvenir.

Accordingly, casino chips and dollar token (coin) collecting is part of numismatics as a specialized collecting interest.

In 1988 hobbyists established the Casino Chips and Gaming Tokens Collectors Club. Some of the chips are worth up to $50,000..... with even the original manufacturer boxes that housed these chips commanding pretty good pricing. Much of those chips and coins are today bought and sold either through E-bay or through coin dealers.

A MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT

2014 is starting out to be a great year for collectors with our Fur Rondy Coin Show February 22 & 23 and March 1 & 2 at the University Center. Please come out to buy, sell, trade and help support the coin club.

Anchorage Coin Club is also looking for enthusiastic people to help write the newsletter and update our Facebook page. We would like to start an email list and have the newsletter sent out electronically by email so if anyone can help with that please let us know.

Hope to see everyone at the Tuesday February 4 membership meeting. It is a potluck so please bring an item to share. The club is also looking for numismatic donations of any kind to help pay for the advertising fees for the coin shows.

I would like to see the clubs membership to increase and grow into a larger more productive club where everybody can increase their education and enjoyment of numismatics.

                 Sincerely, Carl

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