Question of the Day - 20 August 2007

We have our expert friends at the Casino Chip and Gaming Token Collectors Club (www.ccgtcc.com) to thank for the data in this answer.

The CCGTC was founded in 1988 as a non-profit organization for the growing number of people for whom casino chip collecting had become a serious hobby or even a business. Online auction site eBay acted as a huge catalyst and today the club boasts some 2,900 members in 15 different countries while the collectibles themselves, be they the commemorative limited-editions that casinos sometimes release or historic rarities from long-closed properties, can change hands for huge sums that dwarf the chips' face values.

As far as we've been able to ascertain, here, in reverse order, are the top four most expensive (documented) casino chip sales to date:

• On April 15, 2001, a one-of-a-kind $5 Hacienda Las Vegas casino sold on eBay for $15,100.
• This record stood until March 14, 2004, when a Sands Las Vegas chip from the early '50s sold for $33,000 to an anonymous bidder, also on eBay. The $5 chip, in near-mint condition, depicts a desert scene with a cactus and the Sands' catch phrase "A Place In The Sun," and is one of only five known to exist.
• The 2004 record was then smashed in 2006 at the CCGTC convention, when a $25 chip from the Sahara, depicting a left-facing camel (the main factor in its rarity) sold for $67,000. We've been informed that the original buyer bought it on eBay in a lot of chips sold for $1 each. Nice!
• And last but not least, this record was broken earlier this year by another Sahara chip, this time of $100 denomination and depicting a Sphinx, which sold for $100,000 cash.

If you have a chip that you think might be of value, another great resource is www.thechipboard.com, where we originally posted this query. We've never failed to get a quick, informative, and dependable response on this site whenever we've had a question regarding chips.