Not saying you are incorrect, but I could never get the time frame confirmed any tighter than 1964-1965 to 1975-1979. We should compare notes one day.
And sitting down with JimB would be a huge bonus -- I think he still has many of the old Burt Co. records.
I got the 1964 date from an article written by Gene Trimble. Gene's article states the following:
" Bill Christy and Pat Sullivan took the shiny hat CJ mold in the breakup and not long after the breakup Paulson took over the mold. Per Jim Blanchard of the Burt Company Paulson sold more shiny hats than Christy Jones sold while in business for 13 years. The 1st Paulson H&C molds were sold in 1964. They sold both CJ H&C and regular H&C's at the same time."
C&J started in 1952. There may have been a 1-2 year overlap of Paulson vs C&J as I have C&J closing up shop in 1965. I wonder why they would have let Paulson use their mold? No idea unless they charged Paulson for it. I have notes that Paulson Dice & Card Company was founded in 1963 by Paul Endy, Jr.
Still looking for the source of my 1979 ish date. I do have a note that Paulson moved production to Mexico in 1982.
Yeah it would be very cool to sit down with JimB.
Regarding colors, didn't the same colors get used by Burt for both the C&J and Paulson chips? Although the C&J chips used far fewer colors..... In other words, a specific color chip might be able to be determined to have been made for (or later, by) Paulson -- because C&J didn't sell them -- but some chip colors were made by Burt Co. for resale by both companies, and one cannot tell which by color alone.
Related to the chip colors, you are right in that the C&J colors were also used by Paulson when the chips were made by Burt. But I think Burt/Paulson added a bunch of colors during the 10+ years after they took over the mold. I have a lot of C&J Sample chips and also C&J chips in my Nevada collection and the C&J color's are more muted. I think the newer colors are more brighter. Not sure if the color formula changed or if they just added more colors, perhaps a combination of both.
So in summary, if we don't have the mfg record or the mfg date range of the chip and the color is the same as known C&J's chips (eg like the Red on the Chesterfield above), we won't be able to tell if its a C&J or Paulson chip made by Burt.
But if the color of the chip doesn't match the other C&J chips as identified both by either a samples chip and known C&J chips, then we can make a educated guess and say it is probably made by Burt for Paulson. Not quite as definitive but at least there is a basis.
For example the below
LCV is kind of a lighter pink color that I have not seen in known C&J's chips. C&J has a pink, but its much darker. This chip is listed as made in 1976. Pic from the Chip Guide:
Here is a green C&J chip that is listed as made in 1964 and my sample chip (bad scan) is the same color:
Here is a chip that without knowing the date, I would deduce that based on the brightness of the green (the C&J green is muted like above), it was probably made by Burt for Paulson. As per the Chip Rack, this chip was made in 1970, we know its not a C&J based on that date (even though its listed as a C&J H&C on the Chip Guide). It sure looks like a C&J though. Since the Club didn't open until 1970, we know it was made after C&J closed.
I know its not exact science and I would prefer manufacture records or other type of confirmation, but at least its an educated guess.
