Welcome to my page-a-day calendar project!  I hope to someday publish a paper version of this calendar, but until then, I'll try to keep an online version up and running.  I will be including a scan of a chip or group of chips on each page, using all types and vintages of chips. Since my own collection is limited, I'd like to request contributions of scanned images from anybody who would like to participate. I especially need older chips, high dollar chips, crest & seals and illegals. If you would like to help with the project, I invite you to submit scans of your favorite chips using the following guidelines:

1. Please scan a setting of at least 250 dpi and make the images you send me large enough that they can be cropped to a standard 300 by 300 pixels. If your chip isn't straight, I may need to straighten and crop the image, so provide extra surface surrounding the chip if possible.

2. Feel free to use any background color you like, if your chips look better with a colored background. Black backgrounds are acceptable too. Since we want this calendar to be "pretty", use chips that are in mint to near-mint condition if the chip you are scanning is readily available. Of course, the rarer the chip the more difficult it is to find in pristine condition, so wear and dirt are to be expected.

3. If you are scanning a group of chips, please keep in mind that the image will be cropped into a square shape.

4. By contributing scans to the project, you are giving me permission to use them in this calendar. I can't compensate you, since I'm not charging anything for use of the calendar.  If I do later produce a printed calendar, you will be given a printed acknowledgment on the page where the scan appears. Please don't include your name, website or any other information in the scan itself.

5. E-mail your scans to the address below. Please attach one scan per e-mail and include your name and any other information you'd like to provide in the body of the e-mail. If you have a large number of scans you'd like to submit, you can send them on a diskette or CD-ROM to:

Mark Cotton
1301 Canterbury
Hobbs, NM 88242

Whether I use your scan or not will depend on the amount of space available, the quality of your scan, the number of scans received and how many other chips from the casino your chips are from have already been included.
 

Dick Bartley
Bracken
Ed Bigley
Archie Black
Mark Erickson
Jim Evering
Richard Fellman
Brian Freiermuth
Kyle Gorman
Richard Huber
Andy Hughes
Richard Lincoln
John Long
Chuck Mades
Elaine Martello
Al McCurdy
Ralph Myers
Fred Roach
Lance Robertson
Victor Salnicky
Terry Shaffer
Dick Staeffler
Jim Steffner
Gene Trimble
 
 

(If I've left someone out here, I apologize.  Please contact me and I'll make sure you're included in this list)

You can also add the Chip Calendar to your desktop so you don't have to pull it up daily to see the new chip.  You must be using Windows XP, or one of the earlier versions that allow you to make your desktop web-enabled.  The how-to's are different for different operating systems, but the basic idea is to go into your desktop properties by right-clicking on an empty space on your desktop.  For Windows XP, click the "Desktop" tab and then the button that says "Customize Desktop".  Next, click the tab that says "Web" and add a new web page to the list of web pages that can be displayed on your desktop when it is web-enabled.  The location of the webpage you want to add is: http://www.markcotton.com/calendar/autopopup.html which is the page that shows only the date and the picture of that day's chip.  Once you've got the calendar showing on your desktop, you can resize it and move it to where you want it to show and where it won't be covered by other icons.  If you can't figure out how to do this, feel free to e-mail me and I'll try to help.
  Normally, the items on your desktop only update when you go into the DISPLAY PROPERTIES--> DESKTOP ITEMS--> WEB window and click the SYNCHRONIZE button. But, you can also set up a schedule so this will happen automatically each day. Go to DISPLAY PROPERTIES--> DESKTOP ITEMS--> WEB and highlight the chip calendar where it lists "Web Pages" next, click "Properties" and then the "Schedule" tab. Select "Use the following schedule" and then the button to "Add" a schedule. Specify that you want it to run every "1" day and the time of day you want it to run. I have mine set for early in the morning. Click OK and you should be set.