Immy's Casino Royale

[Immy]

Sleepy's dime thread was the inspiration for this (with apologies to the James Bond franchise). Now that I'm visiting the El Cortez more often than usual (aka one of the last coin-op casinos in Vegas) it's time to create a thread to post ongoing results. I can't say it'll be as frequently updated as Sleepy's, but count on at least one or two excursions a month with hopefully interesting finds. Only wish I had the stamina and eyesight of my younger years.

In addition, with about 35 years of casino searching in the books, I'll augment my posts with stats and trivia from past casino visits.


Yesterday was a pretty great day amongst the nickels. These two beauties were in my bucket from around $100 searched. And after some Nik-A-Date treatment the year 1916 emerged. 2nd buffalo this year!


I always try to situate myself near the self-serve coin counters since the reject chutes are good sources of stuff. Yesterday was no exception. A guy came in with a large bag of non-casino coins. We got chatting and he said he got them from a storage unit he bought. Told him I'd take any rejects he didn't want and he gave me the 1981 Taiwan 10 dollars pictured above. Checking another machine also got me the 1950 Hong Kong 10 cent-er, my oldest foreign coin this year. Great stuff!

Fun Stats: Last 1916 buffalo I found was on 4/27/04. And, amazingly, the last 45-S war nickel I found on...9/3/11, exactly eight years ago to the day!

This Week in Casino Searching History: In 1999, I completed a roll of 1954-D nickels.

 

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[Immy]

Immy: nice finds, but how was the payouts on the slots. Hope the Xmas silver runs until Valentines Day.

Typical winning and losing. I bring a set amount of cash and never exceed it. They won't be opening an Immy Wing of suites based on my gaming habits, that's for sure.

 

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[Sleepy Holow]

This will go into the books as a record setting year thanks to this nice 1936-D, my 11th buffalo for 2019 and a new personal high...and when I say "year", I only started searching again in late August. Should be a snap to top this total in 2020.

The herds are running wild at El Cortez...Congrats on the record breaking year!

 

[Immy]

Congrats on the record breaking year!

Thanks!

And that will close the books on 2019 I'm afraid. Far too much going on in the next two weeks to fit in another Cortez visit.

Time to focus (pardon the pun) on 2020.

All the best to everyone here! Merry Christmas and a happy, prosperous and safe new year!

 

[Immy]

And so 2020 begins...

As I enter a new decade of casino collecting (my fifth ) here's how the nickel charts currently look.

Immy's Buffalo List

Category 1 1)1926-S 2)1931-S 3)13-S (T2) 4)1924-S 5)1915-S 6)1921-S 7)1913-S (T1) 8)1927-S 9)1914-S 10)1914-D 11)13-D (T2) 12)1917-S 13)1925-D 14)1918-S 15)1924-D 16)13-D (T1) ---------------

Category 2 17)1930-S 18)1937-S 19)1926-D 20)1927-D 21)1923-S 22)1925-S 23)1928-D 24)1928-S 25)1938-D 26)1934-D 27)1919-S 28)1915-D 29)1929-S 30)1919-D 31)1918-D 32)1929-D ---------------

Category 3 33)1920-D 34)1920-S 35)1917-D 36)1935-S 37)1921 38)1916-S 39)1935-D 40)1916-D 41)1936-S 42)1937-D 43)1934 44)1914 45)1915 46)1924 47)1930 48)1928 ---------------

Category 4 49)1936-D 50)1913 (T2) 51)1913 (T1) 52)1918 53)1925 54)1923 55)1929 56)1927 57)1926 58)1917 59)1935 60)1919 61)1920 62)1916 63)1937 64)1936 --------------- gray = found black = WANTED

Wartime Nickels [470]

1942-P (11/4/19) [30]

1942-S (12/10/19) [21]

1943-P (12/3/19) [97]

1943-D (9/15/09) [8]

1943-S (11/28/19) [95]

1944-P (12/17/19) [50]

1944-D (9/24/19) [20]

1944-S (8/18/11) [21]

1945-P (12/3/19) [49]

1945-D (8/12/11) [20]

1945-S (9/3/19) [59]

Goals? I learned my lesson from the stay-cation: don't over-estimate.

Buffalos - one per month seems not only modest but it would also eclipse the record set just last year.

Buffalos Part Deux - I'd like to tick off two from my unfound list, or at least complete Category 4.

Wartime - I'll double up and say two per month. Attainable based on last year's totals. Will I find silver nickel #500?

Jefferson - Perhaps my loftiest goal, filling my 50-D hole. Sold a few completed sets several years ago and inadvertantly kept the one that was missing The Key. I've never bought a 50-D and hope never to have to.

Misc - Since it's been so many years, I'd like to find one V nickel in 2020. Maybe the most unrealistic, but those are the best goals.


With these in mind, I had a less than spectacular start. The New Year's first Cortez visit today was a skunk-fest. We'll see what happen in the coming weeks.


Fun Stats: The hunt for 2020 coins begins! The earliest I've found a new year coin was 1/20/80. Came close to tying it in 2001 when I got a new penny on Jan 21st that year.

This Week in Casino Searching History: In 2008, the lowest mintage US coin I've ever found clunked into my casino tray - a 1926-S Buffalo. It remains the only sub-one-million US coin I've taken home from a casino.

 

[Immy]

Now this is more like it! El Cortez once again proves that Nevada truly is the Silver State.

Wartime Nickels [472]

1942-P (11/4/19) [30]

1942-S (12/10/19) [21]

1943-P (1/7/20) [98]

1943-D (9/15/09) [8]

1943-S (1/7/20) [96]

1944-P (12/17/19) [50]

1944-D (9/24/19) [20]

1944-S (8/18/11) [21]

1945-P (12/3/19) [49]

1945-D (8/12/11) [20]

1945-S (9/3/19) [59]

Yeah! Today's visit put me right on par for buffalos (one per month) with this VG 1925 AND wartimes (two per month) with this pair of 1943's, P & S mint. And if that weren't good enough...


A lady was emptying her bucket of quarters into the self-serve coin machine (that I was conveniently sitting next to ) and I heard a distinct silver "clink" in the reject chute. I hoped she wouldn't notice, but I was prepared to offer her a quarter for it, reasoning that "the machines don't accept those old quarters". Didn't need to, however, as she simply walked away without checking the chute. SCORE!! One 1943-S Washington! Also vying for my attention was this 2014 Canadian nickel, which I happily plucked from another machine.

Seriously good day at the casino.

Fun Stats: 1925 is the first buffalo of the new decade. The first for the previous decade was a 1918-S on 3/13/11 (got a late start that year) and the decade before that was a 1930-S on 2/18/00.

This Week in Casino Searching History: In 2008, I had another VG buffalo find, this time a 1928.

 

[Sleepy Holow]

Wow, that's a 1943 trifecta if I've ever seen one! Is that a new date for your quarter collection?

 

[Immy]

Is that a new date for your quarter collection?

Yup, but just about anything silver would be new. Had a complete Washington collection until I sold it a few years back. It included a beautful 38-S that I found in a Vegas slot, hated parting with that, but when you need $$$...

My found silver quarters of late are 43-S, 49-D (in change!), 64 & 64-D, so anything is welcome at this point.

One thing I was wondering was whether I'd now completed a 43-S type set. 43-S wheat penny was easy enough, found a fair number of those in Coinstars. Dimes I'm less sure about but I know I've found a few Mercs over the years, have to check some notes on that one. 43-s half I'm fairly certain has not appeared. Slots only ever turned up one Walker, a 42-P, so not quite there yet.

 

[Immy]

I've been unable to hit the Cortez recently due to minor health setbacks. Nothing serious, just "getting old" stuff ("Ohh, my back!" ) and a winter cold that ruined a four-day weekend. Hope to hit the slots at least one more time this month.

 

[CardsNCoins]

Feel better, the coins aren't going anywhere (yet).

 

[Immy]

Woo hoo! Squeezed in a Cortez visit before the end of the month...and it was worth it!


[First off, sorry for the slightly blurry pics. I'm experimenting with my phone's camera vs my old 10 megapixel Canon Powershot. Hard to get a good pic since my phone has no macro setting (third pic above is with the old camera, I think it looks the best) ]

So how about that 1919 Buffie, huh? My 2nd of the year so I've covered my year goal thru Feb. Had to douse it with the Nic-A-You-Know-What a couple of times but the date eventually came right up. Ain't she a beaut? No silver today but I'm not quibbling. Along for the ride but not camera-worthy were a 1939-P and a 1984 Canadian nickel, plus at one point a clad quarter dropped out of the nickel machine. Never seen that happen before, but I'll take the 20 cents profit.


Today there were a lot of people using the casino coin machines as a Coinstar, including a pair of guys who jammed up one of them. So they moved to the one besides me to continue dumping. Between them and the others, I got about 60 cents in rejected zinc & clad, a Namco game token, and this 83-year-old guy. Yesss!


Tried $100 in halves and while there was no silver to be had, here's more proof the half hunters are in force here in Vegas. It reads "Keep Calm - Collect Coin". I will certainly follow that advice.


Fun Stats: That's my first 1919 Buffalo since 2/15/09.

This Week in Casino Searching History: Also in 2009, I nabbed a 1918 Buffalo about two weeks before the above-mentioned 1919.

 

[Immy]

El Cortez continues to generate goodies!

Wartime Nickels [473]

1942-P (11/4/19) [30]

1942-S (12/10/19) [21]

1943-P (1/7/20) [98]

1943-D (9/15/09) [8]

1943-S (1/7/20) [96]

1944-P (12/17/19) [50]

1944-D (9/24/19) [20]

1944-S (8/18/11) [21]

1945-P (2/11/20) [50]

1945-D (8/12/11) [20]

1945-S (9/3/19) [59]

I can't figure it out. 30 years ago I never had this kind of luck with buffalos. It's like someone's seeded the machines. But hey, I'll keep roping in the strays. Yesterday's find was another Nic-a-Dated 1916-P, previously found in Sept of last year (it graces post #1 of this thread). Sharing the spotlight was some wartime silver ~ 1945-P (was really hoping for that D-mint). Two Canadian interlopers joined the fray - 1998 & 1999.

Yearly goal totals are on par thru March for buffalos but I need one more silver for Feb. Got a 4-day weekend coming up so I'll attempt to remedy that next week.

Fun Stats: The shortest amount of time elapsed between finding two buffalos of the same date was in 2009 when I found two 1936-P's 73 days apart. By contrast, the two recent 1916's were 160 days apart.

This Week in Casino Searching History: In 2003, I completed a roll of 1953-S nickels.

 

[Immy]

After several months of searching casino nickels recently - the steadiest searching I've done in years - I was curious what date ranges there were, and how prevalent the new designs are vs the pre-2004 era of nickels.

So I've launched a year-long survey. I'm going to do this by bringing home $20 in nickels from each El Cortez visit ($20 in '20, catchy! ). Not only will this provide a great sample for study, but I can also examine them easier, look for older dates, errors, proofs, etc. Each batch of 400 nickels will then be cashed in at my local bank, since they're fine on coin amounts of less than $25. It should provide a decent snapshot of what there is to search thru.

Here are the first two searches:

(1/28/20) [400 nickels]

1938-1959 = 3 (1940, 1948, 1955-D)
1960-2003 = 123
2004 PEACE = 3
2004 KEEL = 3
2005 BISON = 3
2005 OCEAN = 11
2006-2020 = 254 (zero 2009)

(2/11/20) [400 nickels, 800 total]

1938-1959 = 1 (1949) (4)
1960-2003 = 127 (250)
2004 PEACE = 3 (6)
2004 KEEL = 2 (5)
2005 BISON = 4 (7)
2005 OCEAN = 4 (15)
2006-2020 = 259 (zero 2009) (513)

Right off the bat a couple of things surprised me. First was the sheer volume of 2006-2020, fully two thirds as of these totals. Also unusual were how infrequent the 3+ billion Lewis & Clark commems are, each one showing up at a rate similar to pre-1960's dates. We'll see if these numbers stay consistant.

I'm also doing an informal pre-1960 date search, not just with these $20 samples, but any I happen to notice while playing. I'm at 13 out of 61 so far. Should be a fun year with nickels!



Flash backward over 50 years and here's my favorite haunt in its heyday in 1966. Can you just imagine the nickels in these slots? I even have one of the small casino cups you can see upside down on the slot handle. They were apparently used at least until the 1980s when I first walked thru their doors.

 

[Megalodon]

Loving the thread Immy! Thanks for keeping it going for us all. Some of us (cough, cough...) have never stepped in a casino, so we are living vicariously through your stories. I did play a slot machine once - on a ferry from Portland Maine to Nova Scotia on our honeymoon 39 years ago. The quarter machine gave me a $50 jackpot on my third quarter and I promptly quit while ahead.

 

[Immy]

No buffalos, no wartime, but silver of another kind instead, courtesy of the Cortez.


Several times per visit I can be seen swiping my hand thru the reject slots of their four customer-accessible Cummins/Allison coin sorters. Today's find was a first, this gorgeous 1976-S non-proof silver clad half. My first 40%er and I wasn't even searching halves! It also tells me the sorters are finely tuned to reject silver, judging by the 1943 quarter I found last month the same way. Very lucky to nab this beauty.


But nickels weren't a total bust. The $20 I took home produced my first 2020, a D-mint. Over the moon about that.

Here's a breakdown of the 3rd batch of $20 I brought home to search:

(2/17/20) [400 nickels, 1200 total]

1938-1959 = 1 (1954-D) (5)
1960-2003 = 146 (396)
2004 PEACE = 5 (11)
2004 KEEL = 2 (7)
2005 BISON = 1 (8)
2005 OCEAN = 2 (17)
2006-2020 = 243 (zero 2009; 1st 2020-D) (756)

Post-2005 still represents six out of every ten nickels. And the pre-1960 dates are now 20 out of 61. Pretty sure we can reach the halfway point in the next couple of visits.

Fun Stats: The earliest I've found a new year nickel was 2/14/15.

This Week in Casino Searching History: In 2007, I found my first and only 1970-D half dollar. I worked at the Riviera Hotel back then, and because the casino was in the process of going coinless, the cage manager (who knew I collected coins) let me buy the last several 50-cent boxes so they didn't have to send them back to the bank. Saved them money and I got a bunch of 40% & 90%ers. Win-win! Those were the days...

 

[Immy]

Loving the thread Immy! Thanks for keeping it going for us all. Some of us (cough, cough...) have never stepped in a casino, so we are living vicariously through your stories. I did play a slot machine once - on a ferry from Portland Maine to Nova Scotia on our honeymoon 39 years ago. The quarter machine gave me a $50 jackpot on my third quarter and I promptly quit while ahead.

Wish I could say I was ahead for life in the gaming arena.
Glad you're liking the thread!

 

[Sleepy Holow]

I worked at the Riviera Hotel back then...

The ol' Riviera...may she rest in peace.

 

[Immy]

Skunk visit at the Cortez today.

Not much to report apart from the $20 I brought home:

(3/3/20) [400 nickels, 1600 total]

1938-1959 = 4 (1948-D, 1952-D, 1958-D, 1959-D) (9)
1960-2003 = 120 (516)
2004 PEACE = 7 (18)
2004 KEEL = 3 (10)
2005 BISON = 2 (10)
2005 OCEAN = 2 (19)
2006-2020 = 262 (1st 2009) (1018)

The next batch will represent an entire box worth and, quite frankly, only 9 pre-1960s is a pretty low turnout so far. I'm amazed I find the dates I have to this point.

Date checking while at the machines has produced 28 of the 61 pre-60s, with the 49-S being the lowest mintage found so far. Once I get down to 15 remaining dates I'll start a Top 15 list, which I began doing once a decade in the 1980s. Curious if it will be populated by the "usual suspects".

 

[Immy]

In between Cortez visits I thought I'd post some of the oddities that I've come across over the years. I have a couple of rolls of abused coins and it's a shame not to share them. These are of course not errors, yet defaced coins seem to have endless varieties. You're welcome to speculate what form of PMD caused the following examples of coin abuse.

First up is a dramatic one, this dateless nickel that seems to have most of the right side dremeled away. The reverse is perfectly fine.

 

[GMan00001]

In between Cortez visits I thought I'd post some of the oddities that I've come across over the years. I have a couple of rolls of abused coins and it's a shame not to share them. These are of course not errors, yet defaced coins seem to have endless varieties. You're welcome to speculate what form of PMD caused the following examples of coin abuse.

First up is a dramatic one, this dateless nickel that seems to have most of the right side dremeled away. The reverse is perfectly fine.

Kind of looks like a '54 or '64 to me. As for the cause.... My guess is stuck in a coin counting or slot machine somewhere along the way where a rotating part of the machine rubbed against it. Due to the amount of wear, likely for a significant amount of time.

 

[Immy]

Lots found on this Cortez visit so let's get right into it!


Uh huh, it's buffalo #4 for the year - 1935 - and he came quite polished for the occasion. Minus the extra shine, it grades about a F/VF, but this guy looks like he was ready to be mounted on a piece of jewelry. Regardless, I'm on par thru April for my 2020 buffie goal.


It was semi-key day for the Jeff series! Got two dates I haven't found in years, this 1938-S (last found 11/9/10) and a 1955-P (last nabbed 10/13/08). It's my 6th 38-S and 23rd 55-P. After that we have this awesome 2012-S impaired proof (first proof I've found since 4/17/17) so that makes the above trio all under 10 mil mintage. Heck, that 12-S is only 1.2 mil, easily the lowest mintage proof I've found and the 2nd rarest nickel I've EVER found, topped only by the 1926-S buffalo. Too bad I didn't find the 12-S from exactly 100 years earlier. Silver has been scarce for about a month, but considering what I am finding, I'm not complaining.



Per usual a nice assortment of oddities. This British 20p from 1982 was sitting on the coin sorter with that bilingual car wash token and I quickly snagged both. The Singapore 1993 20 cents came right out of the nickel machine, another fraudster posing as a legit US nickel (I found a similar one back in Dec). The "Coin Meter Token" was a nice reject chute find. All welcome additions to the collection.

In today's $20 home hunt, we got the following:

(3/10/2020) [400 nickels, 2000 total)

1938-1959 = 2 (1947-S, 1955-D) (11)
1960-2003 = 126 (642)
2004 PEACE = 1 (19)
2004 KEEL = 5 (15)
2005 BISON = 3 (13)
2005 OCEAN = 2 (21)
2006-2020 = 261 (zero 2009) (1279)

So the tally, if this were a bank box, was pretty weak. Nothing extraordinary apart from 11 pre-60s and one 2009. The 2006-2020 dominance continues at just less than two thirds of all nickels. Let's see how things progress in the coming months.

In the overall Jeff series hunt I've passed the halfway mark --> 34 out 61

Fun Stats: For as far back as my nickel records go (1997 or so) this is the first time I've found a buffalo and an impaired proof on the same day.

This Week in Casino Searching History: In 1998 I found a 1981-S nickel.