There was a rumor about the Hard Rock tokens not containing any silver since they did not have any silver inscription. The collectors on CompuServe have become weary of the inscriptions we have found. They are:

1) .999 Fine or Pure Silver

2) No Silver Inscription

3) .999 Silver HSP

Examples --------->

Although, I don't collect the Atlantic City, NJ casino tokens I have managed to pick up several due to trades. I have noted that the Trump Plaza $20 varieties I have contain "NO" silver inscription. I was informed by a Casino Chips and Gaming Token Collectors Club member that the first four Atlantic City $20 issues do not contain any silver content according to his assays.

Of the Nevada tokens I have seen so far only the Hard Rock $10 tokens have "NO" silver inscription.

So to help answer our questions about silver content an assay was done by Casino Chips and Gaming Token Collectors Club member Lauren Guida's father who is also a CompuServe subscriber and he posted the results in the CompuServe Files Library for us to view. Here are his results as he has posted them.

Two $10.00 tokens were selected one from the Hard Rock and one from the Gold Coast Las Vegas. We also assayed a $40.00 silver premium token from Trop World Atlantic City. The tokens we used can be identified as:

HRLV-1 (Marv's Numbers) GCLV-2 (Marv's Numbers) and Trop World Steel Pier $40.00.

As you may or may not know the construction of the $40.00 tokens is a one piece stamping in .999Fine Silver and 24 Karat HGE (Heavy Gold Electroplate), while the $10.00 tokens are a twopiece stamping , the center .999 Fine Silver Token and the outer ring.

The outer ring of HRLV-1 weighed 12.25 DWT(pennyweights) (1/20 of a troy oz) and contained no precious metal.

Example of a $10 token taken apart------------->

The outer ring of GCLV-2 weighed 11.85 DWT(pennyweights) (1/20 of a troy oz) and contained no precious metal.

HRLV-1 Center weighed 11.98 DWT and contained 11.83 DWT .999 Silver. Actually the center was .9874 Fine Silver.

GCLV-2 Center weighed 11.63 DWT and contained 11.27 DWT .999 Silver. Actually the center was .9690 Fine Silver.

The $40.00 Trop weighed 34.60 DWT and contained 34.08 DWT .999 Silver. Actually the center was .9850 Fine Silver.

Additionally the $40.00 Trop contained .0102 DWT .9999 Fine Gold.

At the Spot Gold and Silver Prices on Fri 1/12/96 of $5.55 silver and $399.00 gold the following are the bullion values.

HRLV-1- 11.83 DWT =.5915Oz Troy .999 Fine Silver @$5.55=$3.28

GCLV-2- 11.27 DWT =.5635Oz Troy .999 Fine Silver @$5.55=$3.13

$40 Trop- 34.08 DWT = 1.70 Oz Troy .999 Fine Silver @$5.55=$9.44

$40 Trop- .0102 DWT =.0005Oz Troy .9999 Fine Gold @$399 =$0.20

..............................................................................................Total $9.64

LAUREN GUIDA AND DAD (TOM)

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HSP (Heavy Silver Plate) tokens are being found from Cruise Ships. Be aware that these tokens contain essentially "NO" silver as reported again by an assay performed by Tom Guida.

A $10.00 Hollywood Cruise ship HSP token was assayed. To insure accuracy because only trace amounts of silver were expected, four samples were done and all results were within acceptable limits of each other.

This token, was of two piece construction. The outer ring weighed 12.077 DWT and contained no silver. The center insert weighed 13.110 DWT and contained less than 1% silver by weight or .0065 Oz Troy. At the current spot price of silver this token is worth less than $0.04.

As for this guide, no Nevada tokens exist that have a base metal that is not Silver, except outer rings on the $10 issues. If any tokens are found not to have a "Pure Silver Base", I will remove these from the database and list them elsewhere in future guides listing only their Casino of origin, face value and design description. I will not attempt to value these tokens.