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'Josephine' -- 1896 ivory poker chip set (699 chips) --
the personal poker chip set of the wealthy American industrialist P.A.B. Widener,
which he kept on his yacht Josephine, named after his wife -- new discovery --
-- not for sale --
Page from 'Casino Collectible News' article that featured this poker chip set.
Another view and arrangement of the chips.
| Brief overview: This ivory pokerchip set was, without doubt, originally made for the fabulously wealthy industrialist and philanthropist P.A.B. Widener (1834-1915), son of a bricklayer and one of the richest men in the U.S. at his maturity, for the chips bear the image of his personal burgee (nautical flag, or pennant) --white star in redcircle on blue two-tailed pennant-- registered to P.A.B. Widener and his son George D. Widener. The burgee identifies him as muchas his name or fingerprints would! The chip set, bearing thename 'Josephine' on each chip, was kept aboard P.A.B. Widener's 225-foot yacht 'Josephine' (launched March 4, 1896), named for his wife Josephine (who diedaboard the yacht July 31, 1896, some 5 months later!). It is no coincidence that the Wideners' personal burgee (usedon the 'Josephine' and the chips) and that of the White Star Line(owner of the 'Titanic') each bore a single white star, for P.A.B. Widener was part-owner of the White Star Line . (The Titanic went down in 1912 with his son George and grandson on board, a few hours after thecaptain of the Titanic had dined with the Wideners.) The yachtJosephine was given to the U.S. Navy in 1898 for service in theSpanish-American War and thereafter for other Navyservice in the Caribbean and the East Coast during WW I. |
| '1' | white | 100 |
| '5' | red | 99 |
| '10' | blue | 150 |
| '25' | burgundy | 150 |
| '50' | orange | 100 |
| '100' | lavender | 100 |
| TOTAL CHIPS | 699 |
| Provenance-- When I acquired this set, the only thing said about it was that 'Josephine' was the name of a ship. Asexplained below, using the name 'Josephine' and checking burgee (nauticalflag) registrees, we have proven the provenance beyond a doubt. The chips came in the oak box shown on this page. There are three wooden pull-out tiers (or trays) for thechips; like many other old poker chip racks there are divisions for groups of 10 chips that lie in a slanted position. 'Josephine' is inscribed on the brass plate atopthe chest (shown more clearly below). The set has a workinglock and key; the old key has a fob with it that is engraved, 'Capt. Berth,' I guess where the ship's chips were kept. With the aid of Richard Hanover, I see that the set belonged to Peter A. B. (PAB) Widener (1834-1915) of Philadelphia, one of the 100 wealthiest Americans at his time. Starting with his butcher business and political connections during the Civil War, he branched out into transportation ( including railroading and ownership of part of the White Star Line), and eventually helped organize U.S. Steel and the American Tobacco Co., among others enterprises. He was also a community organizer, art collector and philanthropist. He named his yacht 'Josephine' after that of his wife, Hannah Josephine Dunton (1836–1896). (See more about Widener and his family on this page here and here . ) Everything is in excellent condition --the rack and the chips! The chips are 1-1/2' indiameter, with the same design on both sides each chip. They are in surprising perfect condition, except that on some of the blue and lavender chips the rim color is slightly faded and a little mottled, but only on some, and this imperfection is not serious on any of the chips. The chips seem to have no exposed nerve hole and no cracks at all, not even edge cracks! They are definitely ivory -- havethe distinctive ivory grain, etc. (Many of the chips show the smallest dark dot in the center where the nerve would have gone, but not one of the chips has a hole or anything that would let light through. And not one chip has a crack anywhere! In the next picture below, I show a '1' chip where the ivory grain and the nerve spot are particularly conspicuous.) All ivory poker chips sets are desirable.What makes this one special are: ¶ denominations other than the more common '5' and '25.' '1,' '10,' '50,' and '100' are quite rare. For example, in the book 'Antique Gambling Chips,' only about a half-dozen different ivory chip designs of 10 are known, and onlyabout a dozen each for 1, 50 and 100. And it is unheardof to have six different denominations in one chip set. ¶ identifying the original ownership of the set to a particular person - and such a famous and powerful one at that! There can be no doubt that the chips belonged to Mr. Widener, what with his wife's name on the ribbon, his personal registered burgee on the chips, and the known fact that he owned and launched the famous yacht Josephine. Virtually no other ivory chips have been so definitely identified as to original ownership. ¶ being able to date an ivory poker chip set. Mr. Widener had the ship built to his specifications and then launched as the 'Josephine' (named after his wife) March 4, 1896. Josephine died, on the boat, July 31, 1896. The yacht was transferred to the U.S. Navy as the 'Vixen' in 1898 for service in the Spanish-American war, raging at that time. The chips had to have been made (hand scrimshawed) during this two-year period, probably before his wife died. ¶ having a name (Josephine) and design (flag, ribbon banner) on the chip rather than just a numeral or simple plant part. ¶ red and blue ink/paint in scrimshaw engravings (here, the flag) instead of just black ink/paint. ¶ the original/named chip chest (name of the yacht Josephine and the pennants on the nameplate). ¶the completeness and size of the set. The rack has spaces for exactly 700 chips (70 ten-chip sections), and 699 ones are there. Most sets lose quite a few chips (or they break, etc.) over100+ years. Amazingly, only one chip (ared one) is missing from the set! The sheer size of the set is extraordinary. ¶the excellent condition-- no nerve holes to speak of, no cracks (even an edge crack), good paint in the engravings, generally good rim color, etc., No problems to speak of. ¶ unusual rim colors on some of the chips. Often we see red rims on the fives and blue rims on other chips. But burgundy, orange and lavender rim colors are rare. |
Antique Ivory Poker Chips Value
Most of the chips do not show the ivory grain and nerve spot as conspicuously as this one.
Note the engraved lines in the flag which hold the blue ink/paint.
A different arrangement of the chips in this photo.
The poker chest, key and the three oak chip trays. Here it is easy to see the 10-chip compartments (sections) in the rows and columns
of the three chip trays. In all, there are 70 compartments (sections) in the 700 chip-capacity rack.
The three chip trays have brassring handles, and would simply rest atop each other in thechest.
The tiger oak poker chip chest contains three chip trays that sit atop each other. Each of the trays has numerous 10-chip sections, configured sothe chips slant backwards some. Each tray has retractable brass rings on the sides for lifting the trays. Both the chest and the trays are made of oak, with brass hardware. In the above picture: ¶ the upper-left tray has 25 slots for 250 chips. There I have 100 red value '5' chips, and 150 blue value '10' chips. ¶ the upper-right tray has 25slots for 250 chips. There I have 100 lavender value'100' chips, and 150 burgundy value '25' chips. ¶ the bottom tray has 20 slots for 200 chips and 2 spaces for playing card decks (the decks in the picture did not come with the set -- they are props). There I have 100 white value '1' chips, and 100 orangevalue '50' chips. |
Key and fob that came with the set and works the rack's lock. The inscription on the fob: 'CAPT. BERTH.'
One of the meanings of 'berth' is 'the cabin of a ship's officer.' So the poker chip set was most
likely kept aboard the yacht Josephine.
Nameplate atop the oak rack.Reads 'Josephine.' Note the nautical pennants (burgees)--
of the New York Yacht Club, Widener's personal burgee, and the Corinthian (Philadelphia) Yacht Club (l to r).
Yacht Burgees (Flags) Prove PAB Widener Owned the Chips The three thumbnails above of yacht flags are the same three flags that appear on the nameplate on the oak chip box, seen in the second picture above. All are related to PAB Widener. He was a member of the New York Yacht Club and the Corinthian Yacht Club in his home town of Philadelphia. The flag in the center is the personal registered flag of PAB Widener and his son, Geo. D. Widener, who died in the Titanic disaster of 1912. That center flag is the best proof that Widener owned the ivory chip set -- it is the same flag (burgee) that appears on the chips -- white star in red circle on blue two-tailed pennant! The other evidence: the chips show a definite nautical connection, and Widener named his boat the 'Josephine' after his wife of the same name; and only a very rich man (as was Widener) could afford such a spendid large ivory set. The chips were found in Pennsylvania where Widener lived, and he lived at a time when ivory poker chips were being made. (The burgee {nautical flag} information comes from the Lloyds Register of American Yachts 1906 at the Mystic Seaport web site. There you will find the above three burgees/flags on pages1, 3 and 20 of 'Yacht Clubs of the United States and Canada.') In case those links change over time, here are my reproductions of those three pages: p. 1, p. 3 , and p.20 . |
The white stars on these flags (burgees) tie much together. PAB Widener was part owner of the famous White Star [Shipping] Line, which had, of course, a white star in its flag (burgeelogo). In 1896 he had built his 225-foot yacht Josephine, which was registered with his (and his son George D. Widener's) personal flag (seen on the chips), which also had a prominent white star in the design. In 1912, George andhis son Harry were among the honored guests for the maiden voyage of the White Star Line's doomed 'Titanic;' they died in that disaster. George had traveled to Paris, France, with original intentions to find a chef for Widener's new Philadelphia hotel, The Ritz Carlton. Harry Elkins Widener, the son, a noted book collector, had gone to Europe, in part, to purchase rare books; his widowed mother built the Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Library, at Harvard, the largest university library in the world, in his memory. (The rare books young Elkins purchased in Europe were sent home on another ship, and arenow in that Harvard library named after him!) PAB Widener's other son, Joseph E. Widener (1871 – 1943), was a wealthy American art collector who was a founding benefactor of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. A major figure in Thoroughbred horse racing, he was head of New York's Belmont Park and builder of Miami, Florida's Hialeah Park racetrack (often called 'the most beautiful racetrack in the world'), and owned numerous horse stables, championship horses and racing tracks. The March 16, 1942 issue of TIME magazine said: 'nearly every glamorhorse in the U.S. was entered in Florida's Widener Handicap, richest race of the winter season.' At Belmont Park in New York, the 'Widener Turf Course' is inside the main tack. Anothernotable descendent of PAB Widener is Fitz Eugene Dixon, Jr. (1923 – 2006), an American educator, sportsman, and philanthropist. He served on university boards, art commissions andowned many thoroughbred racehorses including part ownership of Man o' War. He is best known as an 'owner and investor of Philadelphia professional sports franchises, including the Eagles, the Phillies, the Flyers, and the Wings, but his most notable sports investment was the Philadelphia 76ers. He served as Vice Chairman for the Flyers when theywon the Stanley Cup in 1974, 1975. In 1976 Dixon purchased the Philadelphia 76ers from Irv Kosloff for $8 million and a few months later brought Julius 'Dr. J.' Erving to the team for $6.6 million.' The following excerpts are from this work : Titanic disaster-- Titanic captain partied with the Wideners just before hitting the iceberg! : 'Among the many myths surrounding the Titanic is that the ship's captain, Edward J. Smith, was drunk when the ship rammed the iceberg. Smith had in fact attended a dinner party a few hours before the crash -- hosted by the Widener family -- where alcohol was undoubtedly served, but there is no evidence that the captain had anything to drink. ' [PAB Widener was not aboard the Titanic, but his son and grandson were, and died there.] PAB Widener ownership in White Star Line: ' ... ... Widener family patriarch, Peter Arrell Brown (PAB) Widener, was part-owner of the Titanic. The Titanic was the flagship of the White Star Line which was owned by International Mercantile Marine (IMM)... ..... White Star was owned [too] by Oceanic Steam Navigation Company. All Oceanic Steam Navigation shares, except six shares individually held, were owned by the International Navigation Company, which in turn was controlled by Fidelity Trust Company of Philadelphia, a holding company. All the International Navigation company's stock was actually owned by IMM, whose president was J. Bruce Ismay, and among whose officers were five 'voting trustees': Ismay, Charles Steele, William J. Pirrie, J.P. Morgan, and P.A.B. Widener.' (Wow, what if these guys were handling the 'Josephine' poker chips!) |
The yacht 'Josephine' (1896-1898) 'The eyebrow-raising accouterments on the Josephine were certainly indicative of PAB Widener’s wealth. The vessel included a piano, 30-by-18-feet-wide saloon featuring paneled mahogany with a fireplace and large bookcases . A “very large” deck-room apartment served as a primary sleeping quarters that included a tiled bathroom [and maybe the ivory poker chip set; remember, the set has a working lock and key; the old key has a fob with it that is engraved, 'Capt. Berth.']. There were also eight double staterooms with washrooms, bathrooms and pantries, according to the Times.' Mrs. Hannah Josephine Dunton Widener (wife of PAB Widener, the original owner of the chips) died onthe yacht 'Josephine' Jul. 31, 1896, only some five months after the ship was launched!, per this source. According to this sourcethe yacht was transferred to the U.S. Navy as the 'Vixen' in 1898.This source says, 'Renamed Vixen, the erstwhile pleasure craft was armed and fitted out for naval service at the Philadelphia Navy Yard where she was commissioned on 11 April 1898, Lt. Alex Sharp in command. Assigned to the North Atlantic Station, Vixen sailed for Cuban waters on 7 May and arrived off the coast of Cuba nine days later. For the duration of the 'splendid little war,' the graceful armed yacht performed a variety of duties, blockading and patrolling, carrying mail and flags of truce, ferrying prisoners, establishing communications with Cuban insurgents ashore, and landing reconnaissance parties. Among her passengers embarked during that time was Colonel (later President) Theodore Roosevelt, of the famous 'Rough Riders.' Also aboard during that time period was Midshipman, later Admiral, Thomas C. Hart.' She 'served with distinction during the Battle of Santiago. She was commissioned again for duty during World War I when she was assigned to patrol the U.S. EastCoast.' 'Her diligent service was often rewarded with commendations for the excellence of her surveying activities. She often carried out her duties in completely uncharted waters and under a variety of weather conditions.' She was finally decommissioned in 1922. The first picture above is from the referenced NY Times news story about the launch of the 'Josephine.' The second picture (a rare photo of outfitted 'Josephine,' now the 'USS Vixen.') is from this web page . Another photo of the yacht as the USS Vixen (andthe source of some of the informationabove) can be found here . |
Used Casino Poker Chips
'Home' for P.A.B. Widener ¶ left: In 1887 Widener built an ornate Philadelphia mansion at the northwest corner of Broad Street and Girard Avenue, although he vacated it 13 years later and donated it to the FreeLibrary of Philadelphia as a memorial to his late wife Josephine, who had died in 1896. ¶ right: In 1900 he completed Lynnewood Hall in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, a 110-room Georgian-style mansion designed by Horace Trumbauer. Widener was an avid art collector, with a collection that included more than a dozen paintings by Rembrandt as well as works by then-new artists Edouard Manet and Auguste Renoir. Widener died at Lynnewood Hall at the age of 80 on November 6, 1915. |
| 'During the second half of the nineteenth century, prominent businessmen throughout the United States amassed great fortunes through the development of new industries including railroads, steel production, and mining. Men such as Carnegie, Rockefeller, Morgan, and Vanderbilt became wildly wealthy and often spent that wealth on lavish houses, yachts, and travel as well as philanthropic endeavors such as universities, museums, and charitable organizations. The era became known as the Gilded Age, and many critics accused the wealthy of wielding unchecked power ... . 'During this time, there were few people in Philadelphia whocould rival the wealth of Peter A.B. Widener. Born on November13, 1834 to a bricklayer, Widener worked as a butcher and saved enoughmoney to start one of the first meat store chains in the country. He alsobegan buying stocks in street railways. Together with his friend WilliamL. Elkins, Widener eventually controlled the streetcar system in Philadelphia.His wealth grew even more as he became involved in public transportationsystems in Chicago and other cities. [He helped finance the NYC subwaysystem.] He later expanded his power by purchasing large blocks of stockin the United States Steel Corporation, Standard Oil, and PennsylvaniaRailroad.' source |
Continue tomy antique Tientsin, China, bone poker chip set
| link to J. P. Morgan ivory poker chip set. |
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Casino tokens (also known as casino or gaming chips, checks, or cheques) are small discs used in lieu of currency in casinos. Colored metal, injection-molded plastic or compression molded clay tokens of various denominations are used primarily in table games, as opposed to metal token coins, used primarily in slot machines. Casino tokens are also widely used as play money in casual or tournament games.
Some casinos also use rectangular gaming plaques for high-stakes table games ($25,000 and above). Plaques differ from chips in that they are larger, usually rectangular in shape and contain serial numbers.
- 3Construction
Use[edit]
Money is exchanged for tokens in a casino at the casino cage, at the gaming tables, or at a cashier station. The tokens are interchangeable with money at the casino. Generally they have no value outside of the casino, but certain businesses (such as taxis or waiters—especially for tips) in gambling towns may honor them informally.
Tokens are employed for several reasons. Because of the uniform size, shape, and patterns of stacks of chips, they are easier to tally compared to currency. This attribute also enables the pit boss or security to quickly verify the amount being paid, reducing the chance that a dealer might incorrectly pay a customer. The uniform weight of the casino's official tokens allows them to weigh great stacks or heaps of chips rather than tally them (though aids such as chip trays are far more common.) Furthermore, it is observed that consumers gamble more freely with replacement currencies than with cash.[citation needed] A more pragmatic reason for casinos using chips in place of cash at table games is to discourage players from grabbing back their bet and attempting to flee should their bet not win, because chips, unlike cash, must be redeemed at the casino cashier and have no value outside the casino in question. Lastly, the chips are considered to be an integral part of the casino environment, and replacing them with some alternate currency would be unpopular[dubious].
Many casinos have eliminated the use of metal tokens (and coins) in their slot machines, in favor of paper receipts or pre-paid cards, which, while requiring heavy infrastructure costs to install, eliminate the coin handling expenses, jamming problems encountered in machines which took coins or tokens and can allow more game-specific technology in the space of a machine which would usually be dedicated to coin mechanisms. While some casinos (such as the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas) which installed the receipt system had kept the $1 tokens around for use as $1 chips, most other casinos using the receipts had simply scrapped the tokens entirely. Most casinos using receipts have automated machines at which customers may redeem receipts, eliminating the need for coin counting windows and decreasing labor costs.
Casino chip collecting is a part of numismatics, more specifically as specialized exonumia collecting. This hobby has become increasingly popular with the Casino Chips & Gaming Tokens Collectors Club formed in 1988. Some collectors may value certain casino tokens up to $100,000, which are typically traded on online auction websites like eBay. Several casinos sell custom-made sets of chips and one or two decks of cards stamped with the name of the casino on them. Each set is contained in a small briefcase or box.
History[edit]
The ancestors of the modern casino token were the counters used to keep score in the card games Ombre and Quadrille. In 1752, French Quadrille sets contained a number of different counters, known as jetons, fiches and mils. Unlike modern poker chips, they were colored differently only to determine player ownership for purposes of settling payments at the end of the game, with different denominations differentiated by different shapes that each counter type had.[1]
In the early history of Poker during the 19th century, players seemed to use any small valuable object imaginable. Early poker players sometimes used jagged gold pieces, gold nuggets, gold dust, or coins as well as 'chips' primarily made of ivory, bone, wood, paper, and a composition made from clay and shellac. Several companies between the 1880s and the late 1930s made clay composition poker chips. There were over 1000 designs from which to choose. Most chips were white, red, blue, and yellow, but they could be made in almost any color desired.
Construction[edit]
The vast majority of authentic casino chips are 'clay' chips but can be more accurately described as compression molded chips. Contrary to popular belief, no gaming chip going as far back as the 1950s has been 100% clay. Modern clay chips are a composition of materials more durable than clay alone. At least some percentage of the chips is of an earthen material such as sand, chalk, and clay similar to that found in cat litter. The process used to make these chips is a trade secret, and varies slightly by manufacturer, most being relatively expensive and time-consuming per chip. The edge spots, or inserts, are not painted on; to achieve this effect, this area of the clay is removed and then replaced with clay of a different color; this can be done to each chip individually or a strip can be taken out of a cylindrical block of material and replaced with the alternate color before the block is cut into chips. Then each chip receives a mid-inlay if desired, and is placed in a special mold that heats and compresses the chip at approximately 10,000 psi (70 MPa) at 300 °F (150 °C), hence the term compression molded chips.
The printed graphics on clay chips is called an inlay. Inlays are typically made of paper and are then clad with a plastic film applied to the chip prior to the compression molding process. During the molding process the inlay becomes permanently fastened to the chip and can not be removed from the chip without destroying the inlay.
Ceramic chips were introduced in the mid 1980s as alternative to clay chips, and are also used in casinos, as well as being readily available to the home market. The ability to print lettering and graphics on the entire surface of the chip, instead of just the inlay, made them popular. Ceramic chips are sometimes also referred to as clay or clay composite, but they are in fact an injection-molded chip made with a special plastic or resin formula that approximates the feel and sound of ceramic or porcelain. There are less expensive chips for the home market, made from various forms of plastic and plastic covered metal slugs as well.
The chips used in North American casinos typically weigh about 10 grams, but are usually between 8 and 10.5 g. Companies that manufacture chips for actual casinos include Gaming Partners International (whose subdivisions include Paulson, Bud Jones, and B&G), Classic Poker Chips, Palm Gaming International, Game On Chip Company and GTI Gaming.
Colors[edit]
There is no universally standardized color scheme for poker chip values, and schemes not only vary nationally and regionally, but even from venue to venue, or by event type within a single venue.
Chip colors found in home sets typically include red, white, blue, and sometimes green and black; however, more recently a wide assortment of colors have become readily available, particularly in lower-cost ABS plastic chips. Common additional colors are pink, purple, yellow, orange, and grey. Newer designs in home chips include three-color designs where a three-step molding process creates a chip with unique base, secondary, and detail colors. As chip sets are tailored to the buyer, the values of various colors vary widely, with less traditional colors either used as very high values such as $500, $1,000, $5,000, and so forth, common in tournaments, or as special 'fractional' values such as $2 or $0.50, common in low-limit games.
In casinos, uniform chip colors and sizes are sometimes specified by the local gaming control board for consistency. For example, regulations in New Jersey[2] and Illinois[3] specify similar uniform colors. Notably, Nevada has no regulations regarding color, which is why Nevada casinos may use white, blue, or gray as $1, though $5 and greater are almost always consistently colored. All US states where gambling is legal require that casino chips have a unique combination of edge spots for identification, the name and location of the casino and the chip's value, if any, impressed, printed, or molded onto the obverse and reverse of the token.
In 19th-century America, there was enough of a tradition of using blue chips for higher values that 'blue chip' in noun and adjective senses signaling high-value chips and high-value property are attested since 1873 and 1894, respectively.[4] This established connotation was first extended to the sense of a blue-chip stock in the 1920s.[5]
$2.50 chips (colloquially referred to as 'snappers' by chip collectors) are mostly used for blackjack tables, since a 'natural' (a 21 on the first two cards dealt to a player) typically pays 3:2 and most wagers are in increments of $5. However, the Tropicana Casino and Borgata in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and others, have used $2.50 (pink) chips in $7.50 to $15 and $10 to $20 poker games.
$20 chips are used mostly at baccarat and pai gow poker because a 5% commission charged for all winning banker wagers at baccarat and winning wagers at pai gow converts evenly. Bets of $20 are not uncommon in traditional table games such as craps and roulette; a $20 chip, for example, places a $5 bet on each of the 'hard ways' in craps and is preferable to passing a stack of chips or making change.
Because eight is considered a lucky number in Chinese culture, chips denominated 8, 88, and 888 (e.g., $8 in the US) are common in casinos catering to a Chinese clientele, often as a promotion for the Chinese Lunar New Year. They will sometimes contain an image of the animal associated with the year and are issued in a variety of colors.
Low-denomination yellow chips vary in value: $20 in Atlantic City and Illinois (which also uses 'mustard yellow' $0.50 chips); $5 at most Southern California poker rooms; $2 at Foxwoods' poker room in Ledyard, Connecticut; Running Aces Harness Park and Canterbury Park, both in Minnesota; and at Casino del Sol in Tucson, Arizona; and $0.50 at Potawatomi Casino in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Blue chips are occasionally used for $10, most notably in Atlantic City. In Las Vegas and California, most casinos use blue or white for $1 chips, though many Las Vegas casinos now use $1 metal tokens in lieu of chips.
Chips are also available in denominations of $1000 or more, depending on the wagering limits of the casino. Such chips are often yellow or orange.[clarification needed]. Casinos in Nevada, Atlantic City, and other areas that permit high wagers typically have chips available in $5000, $10,000, $25,000, and more; the colors for these vary widely.
Denominations above $5000 are almost never encountered by the general public; their use is usually limited to 'high limit rooms' where bet sizes are much greater than on the main floor. Casinos often use gaming plaques for these denominations: These plaques are about the size of a playing card, and must be marked with serial numbers. The greatest value placed on a plaque to date is $10 million, used at the London Club in Las Vegas.[6]
Televised poker tournaments and cash games sometimes use bundled paper bills for high denominations, though the World Series of Poker and the World Poker Tour use round chips exclusively with denominations up to $250,000; tournament chips, however, are not redeemable for cash.
European casinos use a similar scheme, though certain venues, such as the Aviation Club de France, use pink for €2 and blue for €10. European casinos also use plaques rather than chips for high denominations, usually in the €1000 and higher range.
Security[edit]
Each casino has a unique set of chips, even if the casino is part of a greater company. This distinguishes a casino's chips from others, since each chip and token on the gaming floor has to be backed up with the appropriate amount of cash. In addition, with the exception of Nevada, casinos are not permitted to honor another casino's chips.
The security features of casino chips are numerous. Artwork is of a very high resolution or of photographic quality. Custom color combinations on the chip edge (edge spots) are usually distinctive to a particular casino. UV markings can be made on the inlay. Certain chips incorporate RFID technology, such as those at the Wynn Casino in Las Vegas. Also, makers' marks are difficult to reproduce. Also being used by one manufacturer, Palm Gaming, is an audible taggant incorporated into the ceramic chip blank. A simple handheld reader will beep if the gaming chip is authentic. Palm Gaming is even manufacturing custom made molds for their ceramic gaming chips- adding yet another high level of security to its gaming chip.
Counterfeit chips are rare. High levels of surveillance, along with staff familiarity with chip design and coloring, make passing fake chips difficult. Casinos, though, are prepared for this situation. All states require that casinos have a set of chips in reserve with alternate markings,[citation needed] though they may not be required to have exactly the same number of reserve chips as they do on the floor. The most notable instance of counterfeiting chips was broken up in 2005, when two men were caught falsely converting $1 chips into higher denominations.[7]
Casino chips used in tournaments are usually much cheaper and of much simpler design. Because the chips have no cash value, usually chips are designed with a single color (usually differing in shade or tone from the version on the casino floor), a smaller breadth, and a basic mark on the interior to distinguish denominations; however, at certain events (such as the World Series of Poker or other televised poker), chips approach quality levels of chips on the floor.
Variations[edit]
Several casinos, such as the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, issue 'limited edition' varied-designed chips, commemorating various events, though retaining a common color scheme. This encourages customers to keep them for souvenirs, at a profit to the casino.
In certain casinos, such as the Wynn and Encore Casinos in Las Vegas, chips are embedded with RFID tags to help casinos keep better track of them, determine gamblers' average bet sizes, and to make them harder for counterfeiters to reproduce. However, this technique is costly and considered by many to be unnecessary to profit. Also, this technology provides minimal benefits in games with layouts that do not provide gamblers with their own designated betting areas, such as craps.
In television[edit]
Antique Ivory Poker Chips
The first game show to use them, Duel, had a variation in which the contestants answer questions using oversized casino tokens. The World Series of Poker at one time actually used its casino tokens for the poker tournaments, but in more recent years has had special Paulson WSOP clay sets made for the tournaments.
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^David Parlett. 'Quadrille and Médiateur: Courtly ladies' game of 18th-century France'. Retrieved 28 January 2009.
- ^'New Jersey Casino Control Commission – Chapter 46. Gaming Equipment'. state.nj.us. 2006-07-30. Archived from the original on 2006-07-30. Retrieved 2019-09-17.
- ^'Section 3000.625 Chip Specifications'. ilga.gov. 2017-01-23. Archived from the original on 2017-01-23. Retrieved 2019-09-18.
- ^Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, Merriam-Webster.
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Rich Hanover Ivory Poker Chips
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