Club Courage ASM/CPC MD-50 hotstamped cash set (1 Viewer)

[courage]

At the urging of @jbutler, the receipt of the add-on for this set (YAY!) gave me occasion to cull the blue wall for pics and details to update the story.

Many thanks to ASM/CPC, J5, and monkeydog for making this happen. Blessings & Curses on J5 especially. After working with him on some custom sets, in early 2011 he put the bug in my ear in email: "now all you need is a set of custom hotstamped Paulsons." Paulsons were never going to happen, and I knew very little about the process for hotstamps, but I was doomed once I saw this vintage chip on MD-50 and snagged a couple on eBay.

I loved simplicity of the chip and wanted to go for the illegal card room effect. It had to be a cash set using all 312 spots, high contrast base colors and pretty much traditional colors. It also gave me the chance to finally use dark green as a base for a $25 which I'd been wanting to do for some time.

I wanted to incorporate my "logo" in the hotstamp somehow and sent John some ideas for sword styles I liked: Casbah, cartoonish, cavalry, long sword, etc.



Same image on one side, or two different? Should the sword be in the $ sign? We tried some options (posted with previous permission of J5):

Ultimately we arrived at this:

The design tool didn't render the hundo too well and I appreciated J5 momentarily balking at the color choices, but he said once he checked his sample set, I was good to go.

25¢ - butterscotch/chocolate
$1 - blue/white
$5 - mandarin red/black
$25 - dark green/yellow
$100 - charcoal/retro lavender
$500 - purple/retro blue

The initial order to ASM was for 800 chips (+ extras) to be stored in this sweet case (later sold to a deserving chipper):

11/07/2011, received the chalky goodness from ASM. Set was to be:

125 x 25¢
200 x $1
300 x $5
100 x $25
50 x $100
25 x $500

Off they went to @monkeydog for stamping! He had the art from J5 and had dies made. 5/21/2012 they were back! I'd been hopeful this set would be sort of a change of pace for me, but they looked amazing and handled like a dream and went beyond what I'd envisioned thanks to those involved. Couldn't be happier...

 

[courage]

... UNLESS I COULD GET MORE!

My home game had taken off and 300 x $5 just wasn't really enough for two tables. Inevitably whenever I got these in play, we'd have a crowd, so they sat in their pretty case. Time to do an add-on.

In the meantime, a cool error chip from the initial batch:

And some gratuitous pr0n:

In April 2014 (following the Dark Ages of ASM-Vegas) I placed an add-on order with CPC for
130 x $1
350 x $5
(extras for dialing in the stamping process) and had them shipped directly to monkeydog when they were ready in July. It took a while to get them back but Saturday I received the usual great batch of work from Collin.

$1 - 98 excellent & playable, the rest some minor issues missing foil, etc. (will hold as spares).
$5 - 300 excellent & playable, another 40 with a few issues missing foil, etc. but will be in play.

Elated to have these in hand and be able to get them into the regular rotation! Usual CPC quality and the stack heights and colors are a match. The add-on $5's look a tiny bit darker shade than the original but I think that is due to oiling.

The set is now 1225 chips plus spares:
25¢ x 125
$1 x 300
$5 x 640
$25 x 100
$100 x 40
$500 x 20

Cowardly Lion error chip.

40 x $5 with a few issues but playable spares:

Oiled and chalky.

The End.

 

[stocky]

Nice work Chris. Great to see that you've got all your $5s together now.

 

[Puggy]

Awesome Chris. Meloves Club Courage chipes.

 

[links_slayer]

So happy that you were able to get this set completed, Chris. Looking forward to the action shots now that it's "Club Courage ready"

 

[H|Q]

I need a sample of those.

And by sample, I mean all of them.

 

[Irish]

Awesome set Chris, congrats on getting the add-ons finished and the set updated. Love the base colors on this set with the hot stamp, I remember seeing this set on the blue wall and had a very similar color scheme planned for my own hot stamp set before switching to t-molds. Your patience paid off very nicely.

That first double stamped "error" chip is really cool, it shows the precision of both the custom die and the stamper, the double stamped text is virtually dead on.

 

[courage]

I need a sample of those.

And by sample, I mean all of them.

You see in the Sarge pic I have 1 $25 spare, yes? Bring the Mapes set and come play Thursday. I'm sure we can work something out lol.

 

[ChaosRock]

Wow, wow, wow, wow!!! Absolutely outstanding... Your CCHS set has been a favorite of mine since inception and the add-on just puts the set on another level... Perfection!

Congratulations Chris! I hope the set being complete brings you lots and lots or rungood!

 

[courage]

Appreciate the kind words, all.

Josh, I'm very excited to get these in play at the weekly game more often (previously used maybe half dozen times). The sicko in me loves the polarizing effect on my players. Some recoil in horror because duh, no inlay. Others enjoy them and non-chippers have called them "old timey," so win.

Irish, thanks. I really wanted as much contrast as I could get in the set using vintage colors, and that's a big reason I enjoy playing with these. Also the hotstamps have a great varied appearance as a result.

 

[Mr Tree]

Nice! Hoping to play with these at a DCS in the not so distant future....

 

[guinness]

Those chips are hot. When I saw the galleries it moved a little, down there. Well done!

 

[courage]

Those chips are hot. When I saw the galleries it moved a little, down there. Well done!

Thank you, Capt Degen. Plenty of $500's for when you and berg visit. (y) :thumbsup:

 

[beaver]

Is that error rate pretty standard for hot stamping?

 

[jbutler]

Is that error rate pretty standard for hot stamping?

Depends entirely on the chip being stamped. ASM/CPC chips are tougher to get a clean stamp than, for instance, BCC chips. The error rate on my MGKs was something tiny, well under 5%. There is a thread somewhere where monkeydog talks about the difficulty in stamping TRKs and offers additional comments on stamping generally. Worth looking for if you're interested.

EDIT: Here's his post. Good read.

 

[courage]

Is that error rate pretty standard for hot stamping?

@monkeydog could say more definitely but there are lots of variables; mold, color foil and chip, "dwell time" (length of time die is in contact if manual stamper), pressure, temperature, etc. And of course the experience and equipment of the stamper.

The md-50 is pretty tough to stamp and I'm guessing from results that the blues were tougher than the red. However, I'm not displeased with the ratio, I expected that. Also in the pic with 40 playable spares I showed the worst of them, and it's less noticeable in person. I was actually surprised that I ended up with so many usable $5's.

 

[monkeydog]

Is that error rate pretty standard for hot stamping?

Not usually. I would say it usually takes +-5 chips to get the pressure/temperature right. With the MD-50 mold (at least this batch), there seemed to be a bit more variation in the thickness of the face of the chip. The $5 cowardly lion is a perfect example of this.

If you can imagine, the plate of the die is flat and the bed of the stamper is flat so any variation in the surface of the chip results in no foil being transferred. You can crank up the pressure and force the die to go further into the chip but you end up with cracked chips, spinners and a ton of flash.

 

[Chippy McChiperson]

Love this set.

 

[Mr Tree]

Interesting, maybe a plus to using CPC to stamp it themselves as I would think they would eat failures.

 

[courage]

Interesting, maybe a plus to using CPC to stamp it themselves as I would think they would eat failures.

And have only stock, more expensive dies and stamping costs?

 

[spikeithard]

Those are really awesome. Came out great

 

[Mr Tree]

And have only stock, more expensive dies and stamping costs?

They will do custom dies

 

[courage]

They will do custom dies

Ahh, I'd forgotten they decided that. But only certain molds iirc, md-50 not among them. Will be interested to see some

 

[Mr Tree]

Ahh, I'd forgotten they decided that. But only certain molds iirc, md-50 not among them. Will be interested to see some

You are correct sir! HHR is on the list of ones they will do. I still haven't decided which direction I'm going when I have my design in.

 

[mattduck]

Nice set you have there. Hope you and your gang have many good sessions with them.

 

[jbutler]

So much sweetness in this set. Love the classic red/black $5 and love them even more now that there are 600+ of them. I had my own doubts as John did as to the hundo combo. Looks terrible in chip factory, but awesome in person.

Hope you pull all the big pots with these Chris. Awesome set.

 

[courage]

You are correct sir! HHR is on the list of ones they will do. I still haven't decided which direction I'm going when I have my design in.

I never doubted this would happen lol.

 

[courage]

@jbutler, you must come to Louisville and play with these. At my age, you need to make plans soon.

 

[courage]

Splashed add-ons!

 

[ssanel54]

Very nice courage. I really love simple 312 chips when they are done right. Such a classic look, congrats on completing the set.