LAS VEGAS — On Sunday, this city celebrated its hundred-year anniversary, and it might see another centennial before there is an end to the legal wrangling in the cases of Sandra Murphy and Rick Tabish.

Six months after the pair was acquitted of murdering casino mogul Ted Binion, but convicted of theft, his estate has entered the fray in an attempt to reclaim the thousands of dollars of antique silver coins used as evidence in the trials.

In a twist so unusual it could only happen in "Binion," as the case is known here, Dennis Rehbein, the man to whom Rick Tabish gave the coins as collateral for a $25,000 loan, wants the silver back.

Binion's estate won a minor victory Monday morning when Judge Joseph Bonaventure allowed the more than 100 pounds of antique silver coins and Horseshoe Casino gaming pieces to be released from an evidence vault in the Clark County Courthouse, where it has gathered dust for about five years. The collection will be handed over to the estate so its value can be assessed.

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Bonaventure also ruled that the estate may not sell or plan to sell the silver for six months, in case it is needed for a retrial on the silver theft convictions, or for civil litigation.

The decision gives lawyers for Rehbein time to file civil claims over the silver.

Tabish used the silver as collateral for a $25,000 loan from his then-brother-in-law Dennis Rehbein in 1998, when the investigation into Binion's death was heating up and his funds were running low.

When Tabish failed to pay Rehbein back, the amateur coin collector received the silver. In 2000, during Tabish and Murphy's first trial for murder, Rehbein turned the coins over to the court as evidence. He testified only after being granted immunity from prosecution.

The former lovers were convicted of Binion's murder, but the convictions were later overturned, and they were acquitted of murder in a retrial last November.

When Rehbein received the coins from Tabish they were encased in sandy ammunition containers in which Binion was known to stash his collection. That fueled prosecutors' allegations that the coins had been exhumed from Binion's underground vault in Pahrump which held more than 48,000 pounds of silver.

A handwritten inventory of the coins that Tabish showed to Rehbein to convince him of their worth linked both Murphy and Tabish to the theft from Binion's underground vault through fingerprints.

During his trial testimony, Rehbein fondled the silver coins, now in cloth sacks, almost longingly when prosecutors asked him to identify them as the ones Tabish put up for collateral.

At Monday's hearing, Rehbein's lawyer, Travis Hatfield, said his client is the only rightful owner of the silver.

"He only turned the silver over to the court for limited use as an exhibition in the trial," Hatfield argued.

Bonaventure seemed puzzled by the argument. "You have no claim to ill-gotten goods," Bonaventure said. "The fact that somebody holds stolen property as collateral for a loan doesn't make it that person's property."

Murphy's lawyer, Mark Saggese, opposed the Binion estate's motion on grounds that the evidence will be needed if Murphy and Tabish are granted a retrial on the silver theft convictions by the Nevada Supreme Court, to whom they are appealing.

Tabish, however, has "no interest whatsoever in the silver," according to his lawyer, Joe Caramagno.

Rick Tabish was convicted of stealing Ted Binion's silver coins.

But Caramagno took opportunity to ask that the court return $3,100 in sequentially numbered hundred-dollar bills that Rick Tabish used to pay employees who helped dig up the Pahrump silver. "He should also get his briefcase back," Carmagno told the judge.

The briefcase was discovered in a truck in Pahrump by a sheriff's deputy when Tabish was caught excavating the silver. Inside the briefcase, he found a newsletter for coin collectors and a combination for a safe. He also found a handwritten note to Tabish that was signed, "Love you! Sandy. P.S. I love my Lover."

Bonaventure advised Caramagno to file motions before asking for evidence to be returned.

Lawyers for Murphy are planning to sue for money from the posthumous sale of Binion's house for $700,000. The house recently went back on the market with an asking price of $2 million.