The story is a repeat, as I've posted here before.

In the Orleans gift shop they are selling little plastic containers, shaped like slot machines, that are filled with chip fragments. These are the reside after a being destroyed in a what is called a knife mill, or industrial shredder.

The display caught my attention and I bought one. Later on I opened it and saw that I could recognize quite a few fragments, to include the Orleans alligator and his horn. However, I did not recognize the colors, except they sure seemed similar to the current $25 chip, yet different.

After gather many pieces I could see that it was a $1,000 chip, with a 1996 date. It was yellow and likely had 4 inserts, a flourescent green. It also used the house mold, common to all live action Orleans chips.

I then pieced together the pieces I have scanned here and showed them (it) to Frank Toti and asked him about the chip. Mr. Toti is a principal owner of the Orleans (Coast Casinos) and he told me that that $1,000 chip was used on Opening Day at The Orleans. However, there was a concern that it was too easily confused with the $25 check that it was replaced as soon as possible with the $1,000 chip currently in-use. It took less than a month to get the replacements in and once they arrived all of these were pulled and destroyed.

I asked Mr. Toti if it was a fact that they were all destroyed and he called the cage and asked the Supervisor to take a look. The response was that they were all gone and had been destroyed. It was in this same conversation that he showed me their $5,000 chip that they use for special events that includes an Asian Pit area.

Well, thats it. To my knowledge, these pieces and others like them are all thats left of the original 1st issue $1,000 Orleans chip.

Jim