"Route 66" was a one-hour television series which ran on the CBS television network from 1960 to 1964. Two young men, Tod Stiles (Martin Milner) and Buz Murdock (George Maharis) travel around the United States in Tod's Chevrolet Corvette. They stay in towns and work at local low-paying jobs and sometimes have romances with local girls.
The programs were filmed on location, and provide a look at how some cities and towns appeared in the early 1960's.
This episode is titled "Eleven, the Hard Way" and was first broadcast on April 7, 1961.
Tod and Buz are in Reno, Nevada where they are hired to provide security for a professional gambler who has been recruited to win money for a small Nevada mining town.
The program was filmed in Nevada at the former mining town of Virginia City and at the Mapes Hotel-Casino in Reno. The Mapes Hotel has since been torn down.
The Mapes Hotel casino scenes shows American silver dollars still in circulation in 1961.

The small Nevada mining town of Broken Knee loses it's only industry when the mine closes.

The residents head for the town hall to hold a meeting to decide what to do.

This scene was filmed at Virginia City's Piper's Opera House. The city officials decide to remodel the town as a tourist attraction which they need $35,000 to do. Sam Keep (Walter Matthau) has been living in the town for five years but hasn't made any friends. He claims to have been a professional gambler and won large sums in the past. The town council decide to entrusting $2400 to Sam to take to Reno to gamble. The town treasurer Francis Oliver (Edward Andrews), who was against the scheme, and another official call on Sam.

Sam doesn't like the scheme and tells the men it is like shooting dice and throwing "eleven the hard way" which means both dice having the same number and adding to eleven. Sam finally agrees and he and Francis head for Reno with a suitcase full of cash. They stop at a cafe near Reno for a meal and encounter Tod and Buz.

Francis opens the suitcase to get a bill to pay for the meal.

The notes are standard Mexican Revolution motion picture stage money bills.

For more information on these bills please visit: Mexican Revolution Currency Notes

Four local men sitting in the cafe see an opportunity and accost Sam and Francis. Tod and Buz thwart the robbery attempt and Francis hires the pair to watch Sam and the money. They agree to meet at the Mapes Hotel-Casino in Reno.

They park their 1961 Corvette and head for the hotel.

The Mapes Hotel-Casino opened in 1947 as the first hotel-casino combination in the country. It closed in 1982 due to competition from larger and more modern casinos. The building was torn down in 2000. The next morning the men head for the casino.

There are real silver dollars on the table, a sight not seen since 1964.

Nevada casinos used real silver dollars then. The ones on the table are of both types, Morgan (lower left) and Peace (center). Morgan dollars were made from 1878 to 1904 and in 1921. Peace dollars were made from 1921 to 1935. Silver dollars remained in circulation until 1964 when the price of silver rose and they became worth more for their silver than their face value. Customers around the craps or dice table wait for Sam to start shooting (throwing the dice).

Casinos usually used chips for amounts above one dollar but cash was acceptable.

These are real US $10 bills.
The US Treasury Department repealed it's regulation against showing real money in films and on television in 1960. Sam starts shooting.

Sam starts off by winning and then starts losing money. He eventually loses the town's money and leaves and the other men head for their hotel room. Buz goes to the bar and finds Sam trying to pick up two girls. He tries to convince Sam to try again with some remaining funds, but Sam says that a new person is needed. The men convince Francis to become the new dice shooter. First Sam has to show Francis how the dice game or craps works.

The men head down to the casino again.

Casino craps table employees watch the action.

"Western" wear was popular then, especially in Nevada. One man wears a belt buckle with a silver dollar in it. Francis starts winning and the pile of chips and silver starts growing.

Morgan and Peace dollars and Mapes five-dollar chips are visible and not a credit card in sight. Francis finds that he enjoys shooting dice.

Plastic, 39 mm, 10.62 gm

Obverse and reverse:
Blue plastic casino gambling chip with red, yellow, and white stripes
Figures of two people in western dress
HOTEL MAPES / CASINO / $5 / RENO NEVADA

Francis starts losing money and Sam tries to talk him into quitting.

Francis comes to his senses and asks Sam to cash in the chips. The four walk away from the casino.

Martin Milner as Tod Stiles
George Maharis as Buz Murdock
Walter Matthau as Sam Keep
Edward Andrews as Francis Oliver
Director: William A. Graham
Writers: George Clayton Johnson, Herbert B. Leonard