Poker Chip Weights (1 Viewer)

joepro

Flush
Joined
Nov 6, 2014
Messages
1,309
Reaction score
1,938
Location
Philadelphia, PA
I was gonna post these as a "For Sale ad," but I will accept the values listed for most of the chips lol. I'm sure there have been plenty of weights listed in the past, but it fascinates me that chips from the same manufacturers can fluctuate so much due to several factors. Those factors include date produced, materials used, mold, wear, color, and inlay or stamp weight. Hotstamps are generally much heavier, take a look at the two identical Nevada Club pink quarters, the one appears to be stamped twice and is in better condition. I guessed on some of the molds/ names, feel free to help me out here.

5D8B95D3-9573-433A-9C40-0FFCE5F1989D.jpeg

3B0E7C33-17A5-4083-9A58-571D8AB0DA48.jpeg

8326EF74-C5B7-4072-A444-AEE2A2755877.jpeg
 
Even THC Paulsons produced on the same mold in the same period vary greatly by color as well. For instance go weigh a lineup of something like the AS Tournament hotstamps. Old leaded Paulsons also fluctuate greatly, take the Aztar lineup for instance, pinks, purples and gray/blacks tend to be the heaviest in my observations.
5A0AD094-CF7B-4ED8-A193-47146ACDFB2B.jpeg
57DD8318-3F9B-4A54-BB8C-4AC2FA116559.jpeg
4C0F06BB-8251-4D21-99E6-347B2E053859.jpeg
F9A23D5B-B005-4FEE-A08C-77C120F5FB53.jpeg
 
I call fraud! None of these chips are official casino weight, which everybody knows is between 13.5 and 14 grams! Anything less, and you're being cheated!

The above message has been brought to you by 99.8% of poker chip sellers on eBay. The next PSA will elucidate fair market value as presented by "chipsdealer".
 
Very cool presentation. I’ve posted a bit about chip weights myself, since I find the wide variation curious as well.

One of my favorite examples is below. The rather light, currently live, Golden Nugget Vegas $1. This was my lightest of 200. Some get close to 9 grams.

1588029354411.jpeg
 
In all seriousness, is it possible that some 39mm leaded Paulsons weigh less than 10g each, assuming really good condition?
We need an expert like @BGinGA to comment, but when I see something like the weight difference in the OP's Nevada Club chips, I'd venture to surmise that it is just possible to have a leaded chip under 10 grams. Not all colors get the same amount of additives which likely varied over time, as well. Say a design where most of the chips were close to 11 grams, some could drift under 10 grams.

Is it possible that a "batch" of a particular color/material can have it's lead settle before the batch is fully used? That might also explain some weight variation. I mean there is over 1.25 gram difference from these two chips - and you can't blame the labels/inlays.

1588032296664.png


P.S. That heavy Nevada Club chip is 4 grams heavier than my light Golden Nugget - 50% heavier (leaded vs. non-leaded, but still...)
 
Good to get some confirmation. It always confused the hell out of me that I would have a whole bunch of inlaid roulette chips, likely made at the same time (guessing mid-to-late 1980s), all different colours, all excellent to near-mint condition, with a huge variation in weight. Some were quite obviously leaded, weighing in at 11, 11.5, 12g average, but there were plenty in the 9.5-10.5g range that didn't look any worse, and there would be no reason to believe that they were made at a different time. Just different materials, whatever was needed to get their colours consistent.
 
Late to the party but... just weighed Caesars $1s, they vary in the range 7.75-8.15g, at an average of around 7.98g.
Def'nit'ly not official casino weight!
 
But yes... all this does make planning a large shipment, that needs to be packed into <10 kg (traitor-imperial: 22 lb) packages, and that is located in a galaxy far, far away, much more difficult :unsure:
 
There must have been some inflation since 15 years ago the "official" casino chip weight was "only" 11.5 g.

Back then I actually weighed 100+ different casino chips, and they averaged 9.7 g, spanning from around 7 to 14 g. Clay casino chips averaged 9.5 g. Also then Caesar's Palace was among the lighter ones, 8.3 g for the $1, and 8.4 g for the $5. Golden Nugget $1 was 8.4 g.

I also weighed the Paulson Private Cardroom hotstamps I had:
$5: Mean 9.27 Min 9.07 Max 9.50 Stdev 0.09
$25: Mean 10.43 Min 10.23 Max 10.63 Stdev 0.07
$100: Mean 10.26 Min 10.08 Max 10.45 Stdev 0.07
$500: Mean 9.74 Min 9.59 Max 10.01 Stdev 0.10
I didn't have 1s and 1000s back then.

Chipco Egyptians (for comparison):
$500: Mean 10.67 Min 10.39 Max 10.77 Stdev 0.04 (unsurprisingly lesser variation than Paulson)
$1000 Octagon: Mean 14.06 Min 14.01 Max 14.14 Stdev 0.03
$5000 Plaque: Mean 39.56 Min 39.20 Max 39.82 Stdev 0.27

I also noted
BR Pro (Costa Palma/Tiki/Tournament) 9.2-9.3
Nevada Jacks (Desert Sands/Skulls) 9,8-10.0
BCC (CdI/Mardi Gras) 8.7-9.0
Paulson CdI 9.5
Paulson Classics 9.9
Paulson Pharaoh's 10.0
TR King King's Crown 10.0

I believe these are the weights of my ASM's:
25 Green 314 w/Yellow 8.80 avg
100 Black 414 w/White 8.64 avg
500 Man. Red 414 w/Yellow & Black 8.74 avg
2000 White 614 w/Green & Man. Red 8.90 avg

Now, I wonder how I found time for all that measuring back then...
 
The new lightweight Paulson chip in my collection - only 7.64 grams. JACK Cincinnati $25 Grand Opening. Most are 7.75 grams, none over 7.8 grams. Tight tolerance, very low weight.

I really wonder if Paulson discusses or prices according to weight. Some new Paulsons are still 10 grams and others are 25% lighter. Nutz.

JACK Cincy 25 GO weight.jpg
 
When I got my Kings Crown HS chip in the last GB from Dennis I noticed that one denomination was significantly lighter than the others and that they all varied a bit. I could easily weigh them again, but no real need as some were > 10g and one was slightly < 8g. I asked him and he said this is normal and is due to variation in weights of the different materials used to get different colors.
 
I expect that nobody but us cares how much any poker chip weighs. I doubt casinos nor manufacturers care about either absolute weight nor weight variance. They just know that a big pile of them is heavy, so make sure your birdcages are sturdy and use a cart to haul them around.
 
There is a bit of a misconception among the uninitiated that clay chips are all made of some common base material that is then dyed to achieve the colour needed, which leads them to question why there is so much variance in weight. Different colours are, as stated, a result of different (mineral) compounds, just like with artists paints.

Ceramic and plastic chips have consistent weight because they are 99.9% uniform composition among themselves.
 
^ this.

Weight differences among clay chips of different colors (each using the same mold by the same manufacturer) are due to specific material differences needed to produce the various colors.
 
And, to clarify another point that is a popular misconception, not all older leaded Paulson (and other) 39mm chips weigh more than 10g. Although I would surmise that the average leaded chip pre-mid-90's weighed significantly more than the average non-leaded chip of the same colour produced later, there are at least a handful of colours where even the leaded chips weighed much less than 10g each. I believe this was more common with the green colours.

Full confession, it took me some time to get this straight in my head. I remember testing/weighing many racks of reasonably good-condition inlaid THC roulette chips manufactured in the 80's, and was quite confused that there was a substantial variation in weight amongst them, anywhere from barely over 9g to approaching 12g. I'm definitely no geologist or materials engineer, and it never occurred to me to think like an inorganic chemist, even though the evidence was all around me clear as day.
 

Create an account or login to comment

You must be a member in order to leave a comment

Create account

Create an account and join our community. It's easy!

Log in

Already have an account? Log in here.

Back
Top Bottom