This is a project that I've been working on for quite some time now and it's a project that I originally didn't think I'd ever have the chance to try and complete. The story behind these chips was unknown of for quite some time. Articles and talks going back to the late 90s when collectors were finding them and wondering what the "WMK" stamp was meant for. Of course it doesn't say right off the bat that these chips are from the El Cortez. We're used to seeing the 1960s Small Crown El Cortez chips with the Conquistador on them. They can be found from 50c up to $100 chips. These conquistador chips are very hard to find and when they are available they aren't the cheapest chips out there. Really really nice looking chips and they have history behind them.
Here's the history behind the WMK chips from Marlow Casino Chips (Gene Trimble posted this originally on TheChipboard in 2015 (3/13/15 8:10 am) (alongside David Spragg and Ed Hertel):
Going back into the Chipboard archives I really enjoy this post:
Mike Spinetti gave me this chip in 1998. Asked me to try and attribute it.
I sent it to Dennis at TR King. He came back with:
William Kriter, Reno 1954.
I sent it to Larry Hollibaugh in Reno, and ask him to look into it. He found no trace of William Kriter in Reno or surrounding area.
Larry did a phone search on Kriter. He came back to me with a little under 100 people in the USA with that last name along with their phone numbers. It was not a common spelling of the name.
That was before I ever heard of a cell phone. I started calling.
After a few calls I had found some info. Almost everyone I called were related, and spread out across the USA, quite a few in Northern California and Arizona. The family had migrated from British Columbia back around 1920. All were cordial and wanted to be helpful. Harry would say, call my cousin Mary in Arizona. Some had unlisted numbers. I wound up calling way over 100 people. I talked to every Kriter in the USA but one, in Kansas. Her phone was dead and not even a listing for her in any Kansas directories as still in Kansas.
NOT ONE OF THEM KNEW OR KNEW OF WILLIAM!!!
In 2001 I met Larry in Reno to research the Reno Card Room chips. I went thru all criss cross directories for 1952-55 for William Kriter. NADA.
OK, enough is enough.
NOT!!
Later in 2001 I saw the chip on Ebay saying it was Kriter’s Bar, Reno. Low and Behold it had a TCR number. Geez, that spawned a quick email to Allan Myers.
Also a 2nd email to Dennis at TR King.
Continuation to Part 2 if anyone would like to read more: http://www.thechipboard.com/archives/archives.pl/bid/324/md/read/id/1332634
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The amount of time, effort and dedication to this hobby to figure out who these chips were attributed to is just so awesome. Truly inspiring and something that has driven me to figure out more about the history of the casinos along with chips. I wish I could have had the chance to sit down with anyone/everyone that has done research about chips and found out the information that others haven't taken the time to do. One person that is up there is Gene Trimble and then Mike Spinetti not far behind him. Mike is a legend to me and someone that I had the chance to know quite well. I wish I had more time to ask him more questions about chips and really pick his brain about chips he's seen, the information he knew and more. I'll never forget him and he is probably my BIGGEST inspiration in this hobby.
Back on topic to the WMK chips though. Many of them aren't too used and I'm not sure that they were used for a long time at all. They weren't actually for the El Cortez as they were William (Bill) Kriter's chips that were used at the El Cortez. Input from David Spragg: "To me that looks like he had a concession for a Pan game in Tahoe and then another for a Big 6 wheel in Vegas". I believe that this is true. These chips were probably used at a single table or maybe two that Kriter would rent out to use in the back of the El Cortez or maybe something similar. Still... they were being used at the El Cortez in the early 50s.
These chips were ordered in two sets. Interestingly enough the $5s and $25s were ordered first before the $1s. The $1s were ordered two years later in 1954.
There is of course only a limited supply of these chips that were manufactured.
Here's the original order card from TR King (Courtest of ChipGuide).
So the total amounts of chips that were ordered are:
$1s - 1000
$5s - 800
$25s - 200
What are the chances that it's possible to build a playable set of these chips....
One day I got a message from someone that would be very important to this project. Myself along with another member who's around the same age as me are really into collecting TRKs. We absolutely love them, so we got a message before these chips were going to be listed for sale on the Classifieds. I was probably busy with work or school that day and didn't get to check my messages, but the other party passed on them leaving the decision up to me. I looked at the price for the 2 racks I was about to buy and thought to myself, "This is going to be the most amount of money that I've ever dropped on two racks of chips, but I can't let this opportunity go by. This could possibly be a once in a lifetime chance to buy these chips and maybe have the chance at owning a playable set of these chips." With that information I went ahead and sent this message, "Oh man, these are sweet! Any way to possibly hold off on these? I'm going to think about these real hard." With that I think it was only about a day or so and I went ahead and purchased these chips.
A few days goes by and I finally receive the chips in the mail. I couldn't believe my eyes when I opened the package. Something from the early 1950s that was in such good shape was just incredible to see. On top of that considering they are hot stamps, if they were used, the hot stamp wouldn't be visible anymore. I immediately went to my room and started taking pictures. I've kept these chips under keeps for quite sometime and I really really want to wait until I finish this project to finally show them off, but I almost can't wait
Here's the first set of pictures I took only to show them off in a one of a kind rack thread months later.
To me the chips don't need to be the most fancy or brightest chips in the world. I've always been more interested in the history of these chips, but I can't lie, bright flashy colors do attract me too
I've been slowly trying to piece this set together and I've had an insane amount of help from multiple people on another forum along with people on the Chipboard and other forums. It's the sense of community that has made this project possible to far and if it's possible to ever finish it, which I will make sure happens, I would love for everyone to enjoy it and play with if possible. I collect chips and try to build sets for the opportunity to play with them. I understand that there are chips out there that are far too valuable to play with, but these are just in the middle in my opinion.
As of 11/28/2022 this is what the set looks like. My plan is to have 2-3 racks of $1s, these two racks of $5 and possibly a rack of $25s if possible.
Something like this breakdown:
$1s - 300
$5s - 200
$25s - 100
or if the $25 rack is not possible then even a barrel would be ideal. There are all kinds of ways that I can mess around with the breakdown and make it work. Even has a heads up set this would be very fun.
I hope you guys enjoy this journey as much as I have so far! It will be a dream come true once this project is done!
P.S. I'll try to keep this updated as more chips are found
Here's the history behind the WMK chips from Marlow Casino Chips (Gene Trimble posted this originally on TheChipboard in 2015 (3/13/15 8:10 am) (alongside David Spragg and Ed Hertel):
Going back into the Chipboard archives I really enjoy this post:
Mike Spinetti gave me this chip in 1998. Asked me to try and attribute it.
I sent it to Dennis at TR King. He came back with:
William Kriter, Reno 1954.
I sent it to Larry Hollibaugh in Reno, and ask him to look into it. He found no trace of William Kriter in Reno or surrounding area.
Larry did a phone search on Kriter. He came back to me with a little under 100 people in the USA with that last name along with their phone numbers. It was not a common spelling of the name.
That was before I ever heard of a cell phone. I started calling.
After a few calls I had found some info. Almost everyone I called were related, and spread out across the USA, quite a few in Northern California and Arizona. The family had migrated from British Columbia back around 1920. All were cordial and wanted to be helpful. Harry would say, call my cousin Mary in Arizona. Some had unlisted numbers. I wound up calling way over 100 people. I talked to every Kriter in the USA but one, in Kansas. Her phone was dead and not even a listing for her in any Kansas directories as still in Kansas.
NOT ONE OF THEM KNEW OR KNEW OF WILLIAM!!!
In 2001 I met Larry in Reno to research the Reno Card Room chips. I went thru all criss cross directories for 1952-55 for William Kriter. NADA.
OK, enough is enough.
NOT!!
Later in 2001 I saw the chip on Ebay saying it was Kriter’s Bar, Reno. Low and Behold it had a TCR number. Geez, that spawned a quick email to Allan Myers.
Also a 2nd email to Dennis at TR King.
Continuation to Part 2 if anyone would like to read more: http://www.thechipboard.com/archives/archives.pl/bid/324/md/read/id/1332634
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The amount of time, effort and dedication to this hobby to figure out who these chips were attributed to is just so awesome. Truly inspiring and something that has driven me to figure out more about the history of the casinos along with chips. I wish I could have had the chance to sit down with anyone/everyone that has done research about chips and found out the information that others haven't taken the time to do. One person that is up there is Gene Trimble and then Mike Spinetti not far behind him. Mike is a legend to me and someone that I had the chance to know quite well. I wish I had more time to ask him more questions about chips and really pick his brain about chips he's seen, the information he knew and more. I'll never forget him and he is probably my BIGGEST inspiration in this hobby.
Back on topic to the WMK chips though. Many of them aren't too used and I'm not sure that they were used for a long time at all. They weren't actually for the El Cortez as they were William (Bill) Kriter's chips that were used at the El Cortez. Input from David Spragg: "To me that looks like he had a concession for a Pan game in Tahoe and then another for a Big 6 wheel in Vegas". I believe that this is true. These chips were probably used at a single table or maybe two that Kriter would rent out to use in the back of the El Cortez or maybe something similar. Still... they were being used at the El Cortez in the early 50s.
These chips were ordered in two sets. Interestingly enough the $5s and $25s were ordered first before the $1s. The $1s were ordered two years later in 1954.
There is of course only a limited supply of these chips that were manufactured.
Here's the original order card from TR King (Courtest of ChipGuide).
So the total amounts of chips that were ordered are:
$1s - 1000
$5s - 800
$25s - 200
What are the chances that it's possible to build a playable set of these chips....
One day I got a message from someone that would be very important to this project. Myself along with another member who's around the same age as me are really into collecting TRKs. We absolutely love them, so we got a message before these chips were going to be listed for sale on the Classifieds. I was probably busy with work or school that day and didn't get to check my messages, but the other party passed on them leaving the decision up to me. I looked at the price for the 2 racks I was about to buy and thought to myself, "This is going to be the most amount of money that I've ever dropped on two racks of chips, but I can't let this opportunity go by. This could possibly be a once in a lifetime chance to buy these chips and maybe have the chance at owning a playable set of these chips." With that information I went ahead and sent this message, "Oh man, these are sweet! Any way to possibly hold off on these? I'm going to think about these real hard." With that I think it was only about a day or so and I went ahead and purchased these chips.
A few days goes by and I finally receive the chips in the mail. I couldn't believe my eyes when I opened the package. Something from the early 1950s that was in such good shape was just incredible to see. On top of that considering they are hot stamps, if they were used, the hot stamp wouldn't be visible anymore. I immediately went to my room and started taking pictures. I've kept these chips under keeps for quite sometime and I really really want to wait until I finish this project to finally show them off, but I almost can't wait
Here's the first set of pictures I took only to show them off in a one of a kind rack thread months later.
To me the chips don't need to be the most fancy or brightest chips in the world. I've always been more interested in the history of these chips, but I can't lie, bright flashy colors do attract me too
I've been slowly trying to piece this set together and I've had an insane amount of help from multiple people on another forum along with people on the Chipboard and other forums. It's the sense of community that has made this project possible to far and if it's possible to ever finish it, which I will make sure happens, I would love for everyone to enjoy it and play with if possible. I collect chips and try to build sets for the opportunity to play with them. I understand that there are chips out there that are far too valuable to play with, but these are just in the middle in my opinion.
As of 11/28/2022 this is what the set looks like. My plan is to have 2-3 racks of $1s, these two racks of $5 and possibly a rack of $25s if possible.
Something like this breakdown:
$1s - 300
$5s - 200
$25s - 100
or if the $25 rack is not possible then even a barrel would be ideal. There are all kinds of ways that I can mess around with the breakdown and make it work. Even has a heads up set this would be very fun.
I hope you guys enjoy this journey as much as I have so far! It will be a dream come true once this project is done!
P.S. I'll try to keep this updated as more chips are found
