It's not the value of Cuban chips, however, that attract most of today's collectors. Cuban chips have become prized possessions to many within the expanding cadre of casino chip collectors.

Nearly 30 years later, the value of those chips has been restored many times over. Gaming tables and slot machines were avenues. With a new government poised to take control of the island in the coming days, Cuban peasants sacked the casinos that had long barred them from entering. The reveling ended, however, with word that Cuban President Fulgencio Batista had fled the country, leaving it to revolutionaries led by Fidel Castro and Ernesto 'Che' Guevara. Thousands of partiers were gambling in the island's famous Havana casinos-among them the Flamingo, Riviera, Tropicana, Hilton and Capri.