I second the recommendation for relabeled Milanos, given what you've said. Get a custom design on a great-looking chip and pick any color you want for the quarter. Personally, I think the blue $50, grey 50c, or even black $100 would be interesting and fun as the quarter to go with the white and red $1 and $5. But if you relabel you can rearrange the color scheme any way you want. Consider pink, black, grey, white for 25c, $1, $5, $25 ! Go crazy, baby! Just make sure your new label design makes the denominations
really, really obvious or you'll confuse the f* out of your players.
At any rate the Milanos have a pink $5,000, an orange $10,000, and green $25 that you could choose from to relabel as your quarters, given that you said those were your preferred colors.
Spirit molds & custom labels - haven’t used them, I hear they’re terrible and fragile. I’d imagine they feel great tho. Super cheap, $.05 /chip + $.20 custom gear labels.
Where are you finding Spirit molds for five cents? I just paid seven to thirteen cents each... I'll probably be buying more and would love to save a few pennies, so please let me know.
Nexgen Progen 80 chips were China Clays that came in the same colors as the Spirit molds, which in turn are copies of the colors from Paulson home sets such as Pharaohs' and Classics. I don't think you can find any at retail any more, but if you post a Wanted ad in the classifieds, a PCF member might find some they could sell you. The colors look like this, so I think that would meet your approval (dual-color adjacent rectangular edge spots):
I got this image at Ultimate Poker Supplies. You can purportedly order some there, but I don't know if that web page is current and correct:
https://www.ultimatepokersupplies.c...lity-customized-poker-chips-105g-pr-1809.html
The same spot colors are also available in an older China Clay made by PGI using the medium greek key mold - similar to the medium greek key mold used by the Progen 80s above, but the two are slightly different. The PGI MGK China Clays are more clay-like than the Progen 80 MGK China Clays. Probably the PCF classifieds are the only way to get either of them.
Getting chips that feel like chalky clays and look like spotted clays for under a buck will be difficult. The modern China Clays (Milanos, etc) don't really feel that much like Paulsons, IMO. The Spirit molds kinda do, and I've read that the other older China Clays do as well, but they're all hard to get hold of. The Chiplab clays kinda do, but they definitely don't quite feel right, and as you noted are pretty pricy for what they are. Anything else - especially the Claysmith slugged chips like Poker Knights and
The Bank The Mint and so forth - just don't feel much like clay chips at all, in my opinion.
Heck, even modern Paulsons don't have the same feel as older leaded Paulsons, and new chips don't have the same feel as the very same chips that have been worn in for a while. Feel is subjective; there's a wide range, and lots of fine shades between similar chips. You have to feel them for yourself and decide if you like 'em or not. I've liked almost every chip I've put my hands on, even though they're all very, very different from each other.
If you're okay with the way ceramics feel, you can get them to look like anything you want, fake edge spots and all. They don't feel like clays, but they feel good. Casino-grade plastics like Bud Jones feel even
less like clays, and don't even
look anything like them - they have their own design aesthetic. But they're high-quality chips nonetheless, and if you like them at all you'll probably love them.
Good luck on your journey!
