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]

This li'l guy was virtually unidentifiable when I found it. Upon closer inspection I noticed part of a bird's wing. It was a matter of time before figuring out it was a Trinidad & Tobago 1 cent.

One of the more amusing aspects of hunting casinos is the wide array of foreign coins that passed perfectly thru slots. My forum posts list at least 27 nations that have been found, but I can only account for 21.

Here are most of the countries that infiltrating Vegas slots:

Australia
Austria
Barbados
Canada
China
Cuba
Germany
Great Britain
Guatemala
Ireland
Mexico
Netherlands
Panama
Poland
Russia
Saudi Arabia
South Africa
Spain
Sweden
Turkey
United Arab Emirates

 

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[Immy]

Even non-coins made their way into Vegas slots. This convincing-looking token is slightly larger than a nickel and kinda heavy but it was close enough in size to fall out of a nickel machine, shorting me five cents.


It wasn't uncommon for Angel tokens like this to come out of half dollar machines.

 

[Dannycoco]

Isn’t that a gold coin in the top pic?

 

[Immy]

Isn’t that a gold coin in the top pic?

Yeah, just a lame April Fools Day attempt.

 

[Dannycoco]

Nicely done sir.

 

[Immy]

Can only guess what happened to this 2008 Canadian nickel. The obverse is actually brittle enough to flake off. Fire damage perhaps?

Canadian nickels do show up in slots now and then but mostly they get caught internally.

George VI - 1943 (9/19/11, amazing find)

Elizabeth II - 1975, 1978, 1979, 1981-2016

 

[Immy]

Kudos to whoever can ID this. It's 2.4 grams and some elongation makes it slightly larger than a US cent.

Cleaning and clearing out stuff enabled me to find my coin records that have been missing since a 2017 move.

Since we're not able to edit posts after a few days has passed I'm gonna update my totals with new posts.

My foreign "found in slots" total is now officially 32, with the addition of:

ARUBA
BAHAMAS
BELGIUM
BERMUDA
FRANCE
IRAN
ITALY
JAMAICA
MOROCCO
SINGAPORE
SWITZERLAND

 

[Immy]

Dawn breaks, the clouds parted, and then...





I probably won't be able to go until Saturday the 6th, at the soonest, that's if I feel comfortable going at all.

What would you do?

 

[Immy]

On second thought, maybe I'll wait awhile:

 

[Immy]

The beginning of the end?



The Good News - Despite covid-19 numbers rising slightly locally, I ventured to the venerable El Cortez today for the first time in three months. Was good to see the ol' place again and while change was to be expected, I didn't anticipate it to take this form...

The Bad News - Their previous 34 coin-op nickel machines (to my knowledge, the last remaining 5-cent slots in Vegas) have now dwindled to just 12. A previous bank of 10 nickel machines has become a social distancing set of 5 quarter machines in the same space. Three other banks of 8 back-to-back machines are now two carousels of 6 machines each. Getting a seat proved challenging and required hip-checking a grandma (just kidding) but I was able to search about $50 and nabbed this nifty 1949-S, but nothing more.

Perhaps the eventual loosening of social distance restrictions will bring back the missing machines but I give it a 50/50 shot that by the end of 2020 nickel slots will disappear for good. If that happens, it'll be the first time a denom has been retired from casinos since pennies were eliminated in 2012. And it'll be a sad, sad day.

 

[Sleepy Holow]

Bad news indeed! Kinda sounds like my new stomping grounds...seems like very few banks have coin counters, and the ones that do charge at least a 4% fee.

 

[CJ9]

Getting rid of the nickel slots would be a bummer.

 

[Immy]

Casino Royale is back in bidness!



Wartime Nickels [491]

1942-P (11/4/19) [31]

1942-S (12/10/19) [22]

1943-P (1/7/20) [99]

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

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

1944-P (12/17/19) [53]

1944-D (9/24/19) [21]

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

1945-P (10/17/20) [56]

1945-D (8/12/11) [21]

1945-S (9/3/19) [60]

After a depressing, virtually CRH-free spring/summer I want to start hitting the El Cortez with a vengeance this fall/winter. Many of my 2020 goals went up in smoke with this COVID craziness, but there's still time to potentially hit one of them - reaching 500 wartime nickels all time.

And today was a good start with #491, this 1945-P that came out of my first $25 searched. Fittingly, it was also the last pre-COVID wartime I found (back in Feb! ) so it's like picking up where I left off. To kind of up the ante I'm also bring home $40 (instead of my previous $20) to search more thoroughly. And among those I found a sweet 1955, upping my alltime total for that year to 24. Two more first time dates for the year turned up as well - 1941 & 1952 - bringing this year's total to 36 of the 61 pre-1960 dates.

So it's a full court press for the rest of 2020, and I might not rule out another stay-cation next month.

Fun Stats: A 45-P & 55-P on the same day? Closest that ever came to happening was 2008 when I found them both in the same week.

This Week in Casino Searching History: In fact, this very day in 2004 I found another 55-P.

 

[Immy]

Uncompleted Rolls

1950 [32] (9/10/19)

1955 [24] (10/17/20)

1939-S [17] (11/4/19)

1938-S [5] (3/10/20)

1938-D [3] (10/26/08)

1939-D [3] (5/4/04)

1950-D [2] (2/27/05)

2131 of 2440 [87.3%]

1806 of 2000 [90.3%]

Yay, it's stat time again!

With the discovery of my 24th 1955-P nickel yesterday I thought it would be helpful and informative to create another list to chart the progress of my uncompleted Jefferson rolls. The number in brackets represents the current total and the accompanying date is the most recent discovery. It doesn't include the silver incompletes since they're listed separately in their own chart, but the overall completeness total (at the bottom in red) will include silvers. My goal is 90%. The second figure in red is the non-silver completeness, where I've already reached 90%.

 

[Garypederson]

Immy. Keep in mind, if you find a buffalo nickel with the buffalo standing on bluff and not plains, your reward is unbelievable so always look really close. Gary

 

[Immy]

Wartime Nickels [492]

1942-P (11/4/19) [31]

1942-S (12/10/19) [22]

1943-P (10/24/20) [100]

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

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

1944-P (12/17/19) [53]

1944-D (9/24/19) [21]

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

1945-P (10/17/20) [56]

1945-D (8/12/11) [21]

1945-S (9/3/19) [60]

Today's El Cortez visit produced this lovely 1943-P which has the honor of becoming the first war nickel to reach triple digits in my collection. So when I reach that grand total of 500 (hopefully soon) it means just about 20% were 43-P's. Also found was a 1939, a 2009-D and a 2011 Canadian quarter in the coin counter reject slot. No new years were crossed off the Jefferson list, so the total remains at 36 of the 61 pre-1960 dates.

Fun Stats: 1943-P nickels actually represent roughly 31% of all war nickels, so I've found fewer than average.

This Week in Casino Searching History: In 2005, 2008 & 2019 I also found a 43-P.

 

[Immy]

Wartime Nickels [493]

1942-P (11/4/19) [31]

1942-S (12/10/19) [22]

1943-P (10/24/20) [100]

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

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

1944-P (12/17/19) [53]

1944-D (9/24/19) [21]

1944-S (10/30/20) [22]

1945-P (10/17/20) [56]

1945-D (8/12/11) [21]

1945-S (9/3/19) [60]

Uncompleted Rolls

1950 [32] (9/10/19)

1955 [24] (10/17/20)

1939-S [17] (11/4/19)

1938-S [5] (3/10/20)

1938-D [3] (10/26/08)

1939-D [3] (5/4/04)

1950-D [2] (2/27/05)

2132 of 2440 [87.4%]

1806 of 2000 [90.3%]

Buffalo spotting at El Cortez is back in season! This worn but beautiful 1923 dropped into my bucket today, my fifth this year, and first '23 since 3/16/07. It now ties 1919 for the 2nd most common buffalo I've found:

36P - 7
19P - 5
23P - 5

Not to be left out of the limelight was this sweet 1944-S wartime, first I've found since 8/18/11 and it ticks me up a bit more towards 90% roll completion. It also joins a 1953-D in checking off two more needed dates - we're now at 38 of the 61 pre-1960 dates. Two 2009-D's made appearances too.

Fun Stats: Only two Denver wartimes left (43-D, 45-D) to complete the set within two years time.

This Week in Casino Searching History: Only last year I found a buffalo and a wartime on the same visit.

 

[Immy]

Wartime Nickels [494]

1942-P (11/4/19) [31]

1942-S (12/10/19) [22]

1943-P (10/24/20) [100]

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

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

1944-P (12/17/19) [53]

1944-D (9/24/19) [21]

[COLOR=#0000000]1944-S (10/30/20)[/COLOR] [22]

1945-P (10/17/20) [56]

1945-D (8/12/11) [21]

1945-S (10/31/20) [61]

Back-to-back Cortez visits and the silver's still flowing! Check out this really nice 1945-S wartime, my first this year. Last one was found on Sept 3rd of last year, and that's rather unusual for a date that I've already found 60 of. We creep ever closer to 500. Along for the ride was a 1939 plus a 1940-S, so two more dates get marked off the year-to-date list, making it 40 of 61 pre-1960 found.

Fun Stats: Going back to yesterday's finds, the 1923 Buffalo actually has a higher mintage than the 44-S, 35.7M vs 21.6M.

This Week in Casino Searching History: In 2004, I completed a roll of 1946-S Jefferson's.

 

[Immy]

Not every Cortez trip has to produce a Buffalo or silver to be a success. Yesterday's visit marked off two more from the pre-1960 list, a 1957 and this choice 1951-S. I finished a complete roll of 51-S's in 2007, which makes me wonder how many I'd have if I had stuck to searching full time. As it stands, this is the 10th addition to the 2nd roll. I'm up to 42 of 61 pre-1960 since January. Plus, rescued from the coin counter reject chute was a 1997 Mexican peso.

 

[Immy]

Wartime Nickels [496]

1942-P (11/4/19) [31]

1942-S (12/10/19) [22]

1943-P (10/24/20) [100]

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

1943-S (11/5/20) [100]

1944-P (12/17/19) [53]

1944-D (9/24/19) [21]

[COLOR=#0000000]1944-S (10/30/20)[/COLOR] [22]

1945-P (10/17/20) [56]

1945-D (8/12/11) [21]

1945-S (10/31/20) [61]

Doubled up my search amount at El Cortez today and was rewarded with double the silver! Two - count 'em - two 1943-S wartimes to inch ever closer to 500 all time. And the pre-1960 list gets two more dates marked off - 1951 & 1953 - which leaves 17 more to go. Once I get to 15 I'll keep a running list in my posts. Two 2009-D's were also found.

Fun Stats: Last time I found two 43-S's on the same day was 12/1/09.

This Week in Casino Searching History: In 2008, I completed a roll of 1945-P wartimes.