The following is a copy of "Mr. Chips'" most recent "Atlantic City Newsletter" that accompanies each of his New Issues Service of Atlantic City mailings of casino chips and gaming tokens to his many faithful subscribers.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Hope everyone had a nice holiday and that Santa was good to all you girls and boys. Hopefully he left lots of surprise chips and tokens under your Hanukkah bushes or Christmas trees.

CLARIDGE HOLIDAY CHIPS
These new chips were released on Thursday, December 21st, instead of the usual Friday release date. I was not able to get to A.C. until the following day, but there seemed to be adequate quantities available for all... even the day later... and into the holiday weekend. I've reduced the price of the pair for those who collect both denominations. I've received favorable comments on the reduced price for the four Hilton dolphin sets that I thought it would be appropriate to extend it to these Claridge sets as well.

CLARIDGE MILLENNIUM CHIPS
Exactly one week and a day after the release of their holiday chips, Claridge released these LE chips to celebrate "The Real Millennium". I wonder how many other Atlantic City's casinos will follow Claridge's lead and come out with their own Millennium chips? Interestingly, Claridge pit crews were asking those chippers in line to purchase chips if they were on-line and had an email address. If so, we were asked to put our names and email addresses on a slip of paper so that we could be notified of future chip releases. It's refreshing to see that Claridge is willing to take such a positive approach.

SURPRISE!!!!
Trump Marina came out with a $100 Happy New Year chip that took everyone by complete surprise. No advance notice was given about this chip until about 3-4 hours before it's release. 250 chips were put on a roulette table on Friday, December 29th. Very few chippers were on hand to pick up this initial offering. I'm told that another 250 chips were held back in the cage for distribution on New Years Eve.

The chip itself features a hologram effect, lenticular design, similar to the New Year chip that was introduced by Trop in the beginning of 2000. When the chip is rotated, Donald's long-haired beauty that appears on his billboard advertisements seen coming into the city, is featured in three different poses…. with "Happy" in the first pose, "New" in the second pose and "Year" in the third pose.

TRUMP TAJ MAHAL 1oth ANNIVERSARY CHIPS
Finally, after a longer than expected delay, Trump Taj Mahal's organization was able to give some attention to commemorate their first decade of gaming in Atlantic City by issuing these 10th Anniversary issues. I understand only 400 were made, similar to the quantity of Pavarotti.

I also understand (unofficially) that we can expect most, if not all, future LE's released from Taj to be $25 issues. An error on the price of the Pavarotti chips ($30) that should have read $35 was published in the previous issue of my A.C. Newsletter. I did honor the price of those few who ordered with their past payment. The new price on this chip, effective January 1st is $40.00.

NEW AC ROULETTES
As predicted, the attractive roulettes at Harrah's have all been harvested from all nine tables. Sorry; no complete sets for sale, although I do have quite a few single pieces at $4 each if anyone is interested.

CHINESE NEW YEAR
Look for Tropicana to be the first casino to issue a $5 LE chip in 2001 for Chinese New Year.

NEW POSTAL RATES
Effective January 7, 2001 the costs of sending letter and packages were increased. While the cost of a stamp for a one-ounce letter was only increased by one cent, the cost of Priority Mail has risen substantially. The cost of mailing a one pound priority mail package is now $3.50, where previously one could mail a TWO-pound package for only $3.20. A two-pound package under the new rates will now cost $3.95. Insurance rates have also gone up. The minimum insurance rate, up to $50 coverage that used to be .85¢, is now $1.10. $100 coverage is now $2.00; up from $1.80. So what does all this mean to my customers? It means that the cost of receiving your new issue chips has just been increased. I hope this will not discourage anyone from continuing receiving my periodical new issue chips and newsletters from Atlantic City.

FUTURE AC CHAPTER MEETINGS FOR 2001
The next meeting of the Atlantic City Chapter of CC&GTCC is scheduled for Sunday, January 14th at Resorts Starlight Room. The next meeting is scheduled for March 4h . The one after that will be on May 6th, followed by July 22nd.

Sandwiched in between the May 6th and July 22nd chapter meetings are the dates for the BIG International CC&GTCC Convention in Las Vegas at Tropicana, beginning on May 31 through June 2nd.

Happy collecting,
Archie

"When the chips are down, you can bet "Mr. Chips" will be there to pick them up."