Silverbird Free Play Tokens (1 Viewer)

[Dingdingding]

Hey there,

I acquired a little over 100 of these Silverbird Free Play Tokens a while ago together with some chips... Have been wondering what these were actually for, since obviously they are too large for slot machines (they fit 19 to a barrel in 43mm Matsui racks) and also not sure if there is a value and a market for these... Would be interested in learning more about them if anyone can fill me in

 

[drbalance]

I have something similar to these …. I’ll check them later …… in the old days when you walked up and down the strip outside the casino they would hand out these tokens or coupons for a free spin , shrimp cocktail , matchplay , free mug or something …. Then you have to walk a long torturous path ( usually at the end of the casino)to the players club or to the special machine for your free spin ….. hopefully on your way in or out you’d spend some money and time in the casino ….. when I was in high school( 40 years ago ) my uncle had some racks of these and we would play 5 card draw in the garage …. I’ll ask him what memories are of these chips ….. it think they are super cool

 

[drbalance]

I think his were silver city … very light I think made of aluminum

 

[Dingdingding]

Yeah, pretty sure that's aluminium here too. And stacking them higher than a barrel leads to a lot of wobbling and very fancy sounds

 

[GamingOre]

Many casinos on the Strip had similar, aluminum tokens. Hacienda, Silverbird, Silver City, Frontier come to mind, but there were others as well. I know for certain that the Hacienda gave these out to slot players when a jackpot was hit. (Keep in mind that jackpots back then were in the $50 range.) They token was then used in a special slot machine to win bonus prizes. I suspect they were used the same way at other casinos on the Strip, but they could also have been used as suggested to draw players into the casino, a practice that was used Downtown with heavy weight (steel) tokens. From a value stand point, these typically sell between $1 or $2 and can be found by the rack (100) for about $30 - $50.

 

[FlushMD]

I've got a few of these also. There are several different types... free room, free play, paycheck... Many are for blackjack or video poker. I wonder what paycheck promotions were? If you win, they would match your paycheck? I also have some wooden nickels with similar offers. Cool stuff!

 

[GamingOre]

Paycheck Party tokens were a promotion used by Coast Casinos (Barbary Coast, Gold Coast, The Orleans, Suncoast, and South Coast casinos). On Friday nights, if you cashed your paycheck at one of those casinos you were given 1 of the tokens to play in a slot machine that accepted those tokens. The most common prize was a free bottle of beer. Other prizes were free rooms, free meals, cash and a free spin. They gave away a lot of drinks! This promotion, might still be available, but not with the tokens, as thhey have switched to loading you player's card with the free spin.

 

[FlushMD]

Thanks GamingOne for the excellent explanation. Used to live in Vegas also, but had forgotten many of the details from 25+ years ago.

Here are those wooden nickels I mentioned, used for similar purposes...

 

[FlushMD]

Here are some other artifacts I have from Vegas history... anyone remember these?