Formally Introducing The Golden Nickel (3 Viewers)

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Preface: I previewed these 44mm CPC A-Molds right after they arrived on Feb. 19th, but I wanted to show them off with all their accessories now that they’re clean & oiled. Additionally, I also wanted to use this write up to express my sincere gratitude to the folks tagged below who helped transform my ideas into reality. This is my first clay set and my first custom set & I’m beyond happy with how everything turned out. I couldn’t have done it without your help.
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Theme: Tribute set to my hometown of Baraboo, WI. Ho-Chunk Gaming Wisconsin Dells, to those that are familiar, used to be named The Golden Nickel Casino up until a dispute between a management company and the tribe led to a lawsuit, settlement & rebranding in the mid 90’s. Now with all of the tribe’s gaming venues operating under the Ho-Chunk moniker, I thought I’d use their old name as a fun throwback.
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Inlay Art: Created by @David Spragg and his CPC team. The picture on my inlay is a rock formation named Devil’s Doorway located at Devil’s Lake State Park in Baraboo. I understand that my use of an actual picture on the inlay runs against the preferences of some folks on here who don’t like ‘busy’ inlays, but this picture is pretty much the brand identity associated with Baraboo and no graphic art could elicit the same feelings of home like this image.
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$1 Chip: 4DS18+ spot pattern, black base, dayglo peacock & dayglo pink spots. Inspired by Le Noir $100’s & a love for the Miami Vice color scheme. #TeamBlackDollar
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$5 Chip: 514+ spot pattern, retro red base, bright white spots. I chose this spot pattern because it’s exclusive to the 44mm’s and when combined with the classic red & white color combo, it makes for a natural $5 chip.
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25 Chip: 3D14+ spot pattern, light green base, blurple & dayglo tiger spots. This chip will be worth 25¢ in games with <$1 small blinds, and $25 in games with dollar-plus blinds. I realize this dual value chip goes against the security preferences of the forum, but I wanted to control costs by keeping this set in a 600 chip carrier while also being a little deeper in each denom than the 100/200/200/100 setup would allow. The goal is to be able to play for stakes as low as 25¢/25¢ up to $1/$3NL on a full table with minimal change-making.

Credit for this chip goes to my loving, patient girlfriend who has endured me showing her countless poker chip pictures and mockups. I was worried the light green and dayglo tiger would clash, but she assured me the blurple would balance it out. Seeing it now in-person, she was correct.
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Racks: Created by @Ken, six 3D printed racks, 4x25 setup

After settling on the 44mm CPC’s I ran into the same problem that all 44mm owners do -- storage. Some options, like the 43mm Paulson racks, can be made to work but are less than ideal. Fortunately I came across pictures of Seeking Alpha Social Club’s 44mm racks, which I love. I shot him a message & he referred me to Ken and his 3D printed racks. Ken isn’t a vendor and I’m sure has more profitable uses of his time, but he was so gracious in going out of his way to explain what he had made for others and let me choose between 4x20 and 4x25 racks that fit the 44mm chips.

He even sent me a time-lapse of my racks being printed --

Once the racks were delivered from Ken, the lettering was still white like the rest of the rack. I decided to play up the gold theme by gilding the inside of the debossed lettering. I started by painting the letters with a burnish sealer then I painted on top of that with a gold paint (gold shell, more accurately) that I made by mixing 24 carat gold powder with gum arabic.
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Birdcage: Sourced through @T_Chan

Having chosen the 4x25 setup, I now needed a custom-sized birdcage to fit my non-standard sized racks. I asked around the forum for help and eventually Tony took pity upon my cause and was able to have his supplier make a one-off birdcage to my specs.
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Dealer Buttons: A year ago I started reaching out to folks about having a custom laser-etched clear acrylic dealer button made. I sent PM’s and made a wanted post just crossing my fingers that I’d find one designer who would help me out. As it turned out, I had two designers reach out to me and both put forward designs I really liked, so I did what any scrub donkey would do and went forward with both of them. I’m so glad I did & I can’t wait to get them both designs in-rotation.

Button on left created by @PokerChipsDesign, buttons on right created by @Amish Rabbi
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What’s next? An astute observer might notice that none of my pron was taken on a poker table. I have an order in with Tony that is in the queue for late May or June. Tony has agreed to take on the challenge of some unique design features and I’m really looking forward to sharing more details and pics in the months ahead.

And of course I can’t wait to host a cash game with PCF’ers to break in the chips & table around June or July :)
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Great set, love the unique spot pattern on the fiver. Congrats!

If you ever are bored on a rainy day and have a digital scale, I'd be curious to see what the difference in weight is for a barrel of the retro red vs either weighted black or light green colors. It's next to nothing on 39mm chips (like 3%), I'd like to see if it's any more/less substantial on the bigger chips.
 
Thank you everyone for your kind words!

@Irish My digital scale days ended in my early 20’s:LOL: :laugh:. I just did a blind test with a stack of 15 green and 15 red, I was able to identify the green stack as the heavier of the two but I had little to no confidence in my guess before I looked. I’d describe the weight difference as negligible. Tbh I just chose what I felt were the best colors regardless of weighted vs. non, no regrets in doing so.

@Blacksox1 So that particular spot is actually in the Wisconsin Dells proper, whereas the area of my photo/inlay is in Baraboo. Your spot is a stop on the Dells boat tour or Dells duckboat tour (I can’t remember which) but it’s certainly gorgeous. The area as a whole isn’t short on natural beauty.
 
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Nice set, I really like that 25 (and I think a green-based chip os one of the hardest to do right, so kudos). just a question, I noticed your 25 didnt haved a dollar sign in front. Is that so you can either use it as a frac, or as a $25 depending on the game you are running?
 
Nice set, I really like that 25 (and I think a green-based chip os one of the hardest to do right, so kudos). just a question, I noticed your 25 didnt haved a dollar sign in front. Is that so you can either use it as a frac, or as a $25 depending on the game you are running?
nevermind I missed your description the 1st time I scrolled through this thread. Very creative way to control costs and still have a flexible set.
 
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No idea how I missed this thread brother Nate! But we got these puppies in play last night @ConsensualPresidency took the best picture last night.

@JMC9389 , @upNdown , @Seeking Alpha Social Club and anyone else thinking or that have a CPC 44mm set. Y'all already know what's up! Man these chips are awesome!
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Unfortunately my only pic was with a "wonderful" Sohe hand
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Anyways amazing write up Nate, thank you for the opportunity to play them... may have to come down for an evening sometime to the ole Nat. Harbor!

Brother Nate easily falls into the "one of the nicest people you would ever want to meet category" I know we all say that a lot... but no question one of the easiest going gents in a card room.

I know you didn't get many spares but thank you so much for carving off a sample for us.
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Promise they are "in good company" (we keep the CPC samples in order by mold and alphabetically within each mold) yours are right next to @JMC9389 where they belong! Lol
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Someday, unfortunately... I think ai will have to make a 44mm set now. So damn cool!
 
@Ben8257, you sweet talker, thank you so much for all the compliments! Did my wife pay you to say all that? I haven't had that level of flattery thrown my way since my mistress needed money.

Seriously though, it means a lot coming from someone who has so many insane sets that you and Brie have put together. On that note, it's very gracious of you both to let us degenerates sully them on a monthly basis.

Those two cases full of CPC samples left me slack jawed for a moment. Just wow.

Yes, please come to a game so I can get some more action on my T_Chan! If you and Brie come we're 3/8ths of the way to a full table & I should be able to fill out the rest (provided a little notice). I know you guys are busy with meetups and whatnot but send me a date or two that would work and I'll top off the bar cart!

The aforementioned pic with our amazing host @longflop! Thank you so much for organizing such a great monthly game & allowing me to get these in play at the PooPalace er, Basement Club!
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What’s up Joey, we met at Kevin’s during the alpha shoutout (playing cash with rbonus’s chips)

I’m in National Harbor, the game runs ad hoc when I know I can get a critical mass of players on a certain day & time and then I send invites out from there


Tall guy bottom right of that picture above? Yeah I remember.


I work in Alexandria so national harbor is pretty close. I still got little kids so won’t be able to make it out often but I’d love to stop by some time. Add me to your list
 
@Ben8257, you sweet talker, thank you so much for all the compliments! Did my wife pay you to say all that? I haven't had that level of flattery thrown my way since my mistress needed money.

Seriously though, it means a lot coming from someone who has so many insane sets that you and Brie have put together. On that note, it's very gracious of you both to let us degenerates sully them on a monthly basis.

Those two cases full of CPC samples left me slack jawed for a moment. Just wow.

Yes, please come to a game so I can get some more action on my T_Chan! If you and Brie come we're 3/8ths of the way to a full table & I should be able to fill out the rest (provided a little notice). I know you guys are busy with meetups and whatnot but send me a date or two that would work and I'll top off the bar cart!

The aforementioned pic with our amazing host @longflop! Thank you so much for organizing such a great monthly game & allowing me to get these in play at the PooPalace er, Basement Club!View attachment 978285
Glad Nate popped that pic BEFORE I punted the majority if my stack to ole Jeff in the Salmon shirt... ouch $100 punt in a $30 buy in game... so is life! The ole board paired on the river trick holding nut flush and top 2 pair on the other when the flush hits that board as well. So is life... thank you Ole Man River!!

@longflop has an amazing group of guys, always feel "at home" with this group!

Great Pic Nate,saved and absolutely down for a game brother. We slow way down in the winter months so if you give us a few days notice we can probably make it brother! Any opportunity to play those monster 44mm on a Chan table is well worth the trip!

I have a whole pocket full of compliments as long as you are breaking out the custom 44mm Golden Nickles! Again amazing job on these, trully a forever set! I probably have the honor of the Largest "punt" recorded on them so far as well! Lmao just $$$ they make more!
 
Glad Nate popped that pic BEFORE I punted the majority if my stack to ole Jeff in the Salmon shirt... ouch $100 punt in a $30 buy in game... so is life! The ole board paired on the river trick holding nut flush and top 2 pair on the other when the flush hits that board as well. So is life... thank you Ole Man River!!

@longflop has an amazing group of guys, always feel "at home" with this group!

Great Pic Nate,saved and absolutely down for a game brother. We slow way down in the winter months so if you give us a few days notice we can probably make it brother! Any opportunity to play those monster 44mm on a Chan table is well worth the trip!

I have a whole pocket full of compliments as long as you are breaking out the custom 44mm Golden Nickles! Again amazing job on these, trully a forever set! I probably have the honor of the Largest "punt" recorded on them so far as well! Lmao just $$$ they make more!
Jeff is the villain of my poker nightmares, when he gets momentum he’s like a downhill steamroller
 

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