Member Key West sets (1 Viewer)

dennis63

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As we send out more new Key West Resort & Casino chips and samples this week, I invite the members of PCF to post photos of their Key West sets.

Meanwhile, this weekend I reviewed our customer list and found some interesting facts about the owners of Key West chips.

  • We've sold chips to about a dozen people who own an average of 1,100 Key West chips each.
  • Not counting our large set owners above, the "average" Key West chip owner has exactly 300 Key West chips in his or her collection.
  • We regularly hear from over 100 people worldwide who collect sample sets only. When we add a new chip to the line, we can expect to send over 100 single-chip packages out. And that's fine with us.
  • The state with the largest single private collection of Key West chips is Colorado.
  • The state with the highest number of people who own playable sets of Key West is Texas.
  • As far as I know, there is only one set of Key West chips actually in Key West.
  • All told, we've sold Key West chips to players in the United States and 18 other countries. Together, they speak 11 languages. Apparently, all of them speak Poker.
Now for photos...

 
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I'm definitely below the average but still love my heads-up set. :)

full


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dennis63's personal home game set

Most of these chips were acquired when Old ASM and Jim B were still in Portland. I added racks of new denominations as they came out -- nickels, $2.50s, $25,000. (These are not retail chips, which are kept separately.)



DzsIKlI.jpg


If you're counting, what you see above is:

2,500 denominated Key West chips
200 x NCV (Imperial blue and blue)
200 x 5 cents (Butterscotch and chocolate)
400 x 25 cents (Gray and black)
300 x $1 (white original, white and yellow)
200 x $1 (Imperial blue and yellow)
100 x $2.50 (Pink and white)
300 x $5 (Red and Imperial blue)
200 x $25 (Green and Lavender)
200 x $100 (Black / Light green)
100 x $500 (Purple / Pink)
100 x $1,000 (Yellow / Day Glow Green)
100 x $5,000 (Orange / Chocolate)
100 x $25,000 (Day Glow Peach / Green)

qcXZTmC.jpg

600 roulette chips, 1 rack each of
Blue
Light Blue
Day Glow Yellow
Day Glow Green
Day Glow Pink
Lavender

36 decks of Key West cards
Two KW dealer buttons -- white and black
1 green custom KW cut card
Precision dice -- red, blue and green
Note: I'm posting this realizing I never take my own advice. Whenever someone asks, I tell them that most people who play poker at home will be perfectly well equipped with a set of 500 chips.
 
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@dennis63 I remember when you made the switch over to primarily collecting Key Wests before you obtained the rights to the design and breathed new life back into the line.

Do you still have your initial photos of your set from back then? IIRC it was a pretty damn impressive stash even before you were the HNIC.
 
@dennis63 I remember when you made the switch over to primarily collecting Key Wests before you obtained the rights to the design and breathed new life back into the line.

Do you still have your initial photos of your set from back then? IIRC it was a pretty damn impressive stash even before you were the HNIC.

I'll have to check the old Blue Wall, but I know that I bought a 9-chip sample set from Apache in November, 2007. Eventually, I got a set of 650 chips from Chiptalk members -- many of whom have moved over to the more-civilized world here at Poker Chip Forum. Back then, there were only nine denominations of Key West.

I'll be digging around the internet for those early photos...
 
Wow I'm really digging the solid dayglo roulette chips. I think if I get a small cash set I would use the roulette's as a frac alternative. Blue $1's + dayglo pink as quarters = sexy
 
I'll have to check the old Blue Wall, but I know that I bought a 9-chip sample set from Apache in November, 2007. Eventually, I got a set of 650 chips from Chiptalk members -- many of whom have moved over to the more-civilized world here at Poker Chip Forum. Back then, there were only nine denominations of Key West.

I'll be digging around the internet for those early photos...
Did I miss something?
I even had no idea that they have a story ..
 
Did I miss something?
I even had no idea that they have a story ..

They were originally a design owned by @Apache which Dennis bought after falling in love with the chips. I'm sure he can fill in more details.

This is the original thread I was remembering above in which Dennis first made the jump to collecting Key Wests. Unfortunately the images are expired, but it's still a great read.
 
dennis63's personal home game set

36 decks of Key West cards
Two KW dealer buttons -- white and black
1 green custom KW cut card
Precision dice -- red, blue and green
Note: I'm posting this realizing I never take my own advice. Whenever someone asks, I tell them that most people who play poker at home will be perfectly well equipped with a set of 500 chips.

So how many decks of cards do you tell them they need? ;)
 
Did I miss something?
I even had no idea that they have a story ..

The chip and the mold each have their own history.

The H mold was created at some time in the 1920s for the H.C. Edwards Co., of New York. They supplied clay casino chip to many illegal clubs across the United States, both before and after gambling became legal in Vegas in 1931. The Burt Company used the mold to make casino chips for the first legal casinos in Las Vegas. There has only ever been one H mold -- two large steel plates with the mold impression engraved 25 times -- five rows of five.

The H mold was used to make table chips for the Bonanza Club, Caesar's Palace, Desert Inn, Flamingo, Hotel Freemont, Golden Gate, Harold's Club, Sahara, Sands, and Stardust. (Robert Eisenstadt's Casino Chip History page shows each of these chips, and notes that the last owner of the H.C. Edwards Company carried around one of each chip, punched, on a string.)

The mold was used to make real Las Vegas Casino chips from the dawn of legalized gambling through the 1960s. Lots more illegal chips were made. Eisenstadt lists dozens of illegal clubs across the U.S. For its part, the Burt Company kept records on index cads in a shoe box, and "encrypted" the records by listing false names and address changed in some specific way. They called their big customers, who bought enough chips to run an illegal casino, "ice cream parlors."

I'm not sure when, but the mold was shelved, and eventually made it to the company we know as Atlantic Standard Molding.

In 2004, ASM decided to start using the H mold again. Josh Shore from Apache saw the opportunity to make the perfect, retro-1960s casino chip on the perfect mold, and created the Key West. John at J5 design was enlisted to do the inlay design, and the name was selected because there had never been a Key West Casino in Las Vegas -- or in Key West. They even picked inlay art and fonts that were popular in the 1960s.

The original price on the chips in a "pre-sale" was $0.89 each. After a few weeks, that went to $1.09. (Not fair to quote those prices these days, as we've had pretty steep inflation on most things since then, and some factors and circumstances that kept prices down no longer exist.)

I got involved with Key West in 2007. I bought a sample set from Josh and loved the look, the material -- the whole idea of Key West. Classic clay chips, storied, historic mold, made exactly the same way they did "back in the day." It was like being able to go back in time and buy real chips from Old Las Vegas. I started buying more.

Around 2011, Josh told me he was running low on Key Wests, and thought about discontinuing the line of chips. I put together a couple of group buys with Josh's permission with Jim at ASM. Eventually, I bought the inlay art from Josh to make more Key Wests with Jim B and ASM for people who like them.
 
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The "real history" of the mold, and the founding and demise of the various companies in the casino chip business to own it, is even more interesting and detailed. It involves artists, inventors, lawsuits (including one by Donald Trump), federal gambling cases, dirty dealers, friends and enemies, and a few good, honest men and women who made casino chips.

You learn quite a bit in private conversations with the people involved, and the people who know what really happened.

It's a book in itself. I will write it someday, but not today.

And for the record, we believe the "H" stands for Harry.

There is some controversy surrounding the initial, particularly here. (No surprise.) But I believe the H was simply the first initial of Harry C. Edwards, an artist, book illustrator and sometimes-stage actor from New York who was at one time the owner of the H.C. Edwards Co., and was a friend and associate of Alanzo Burt, head of the Burt Co.
 
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@dennis63 you write the book, I'd definitely read it.

So the currently used H-mold, is still the exact same pieces of steel that was used back in the 20's and for all of that type made since? If that's correct that is pretty amazing. Love the history and the idea of using chips that were made by the same exact mold as chips that have been used in all those halls.
 
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@dennis63 you write the book, I'd definitely read it.

So the currently used H-mold, is still the exact same pieces of steel that was used back in the 20's and for all of that type made since? If that's correct that is pretty amazing. Love the history and the idea of using chips that were made by the same exact mold as chips that have been used in all those halls.

Yes, only one H mold. @David Spragg would know more about the history, but all H mold chips were made on that one mold.
 
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Here's the actual mold in a photo taken by Mike Dambach when he was running ASM Las Vegas. On the right, a real Sahara $5 from the late 1960s, and a mint Key West $5 made in 2014. It looks like the color formula hasn't even changed.
 
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wow amazing story and amazing information. Write the book - include other stories surrounding chips and you'll have every member and chipper buying a copy!!;)
 
I have a limited-edition boxed setup but I don't see any difference with the one on the site : http://www.keywestresortcasino.com/buy-key-west-playing-cards.html

Did I miss something ?


No. In 2012, we had an outside company create 100 two-deck setups of Key West cards in boxes, with a card divider inside (so the cards wouldn't mix after the decks were opened. The boxes are shrink-wrapped on the outside of the box. They are the same red and blue Key West decks.

We only made 100 sets. (They're numbered.) The certificate inside notes that a limited number were created.

The setups actually cost more than their selling price, and are for people who prefer to have a two-deck setup sitting on the poker table. They were not intended to be different cards, and I really did think we'd sell 100 before New Years Day, 2013. (I've been wrong about these things before.)

PM sent offering a refund of your decks, and a personal request regarding one of your images, above.
 
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Don't really have a set, just a sample set.
I love the inlay, the feel of the chips and the fact that the inlay is aligned with the edge spots.
Nice colour combinations as well.
If the cost for customs wouldn't be that much (just calculated: 2292,00 dollar), I would by me a set of 4000.
KWS3.jpg
 

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