HRHGuy
Sitting Out
I purchased a large hard rock hotel collection last year. this collection seems to come from someone that lived in and maybe worked at the hard rock mainly because the collection includes silver strikes, roulette, LTD edition, and maybe gift shop chips. everything is 100% up to 2002-ish. what im trying to find out is the Hard Rock Cafe Las Vegas "Can't Buy Me Love" chips catalogued on ChipGuide — Blue CG193499, Red CG193500, White CG193501, Black CG200975 (all 1995, NCV, 4 brass inserts, brass inlay, "Hard Rock Cafe" logo; reds/whites on the 4Suits mold, black on Plain).
Each entry reads: "Artist's remake. From David Whalen's personal collection. Sold in the gift shop originally. 'Can't Buy Me Love'." I'm trying to pin down what that means.
Two readings:
(a) These are Whalen's artist remakes, and those same remakes are what the gift shop sold — i.e., one version; or
(b) There were two distinct populations — original gift-shop chips and separate Whalen remakes.
Specific questions:
Is there only one version per color, or do "remake" and "gift-shop" examples differ in any way (mold, inserts, inlay, markings, thickness)?
Does "From David Whalen's personal collection" describe just the specific example that was catalogued/photographed, or all known examples?
Was there ever an original, non-remake Hard Rock Cafe "Can't Buy Me Love" chip, or were the gift-shop chips always Whalen's remakes?
Any idea how many were made / are known, and is the blue (CG193499, NotInTCR) the toughest of the four?
I have the red, white, and black and I'm trying to record provenance accurately. The entries are credited to David Sarles (blue/red/white) and Doug "Cigarman" Smith (black), so I'd especially value their input. Thanks for cataloguing these.
The chips in question at the bottom of the second image with brass inserts, the first image shows HRH tournament chips and maybe gift shop dice chips on the bottom, both sets maybe from the gift shop. Im mainly interested in the brass insert chips, what they are and what is their story.
Justin
Each entry reads: "Artist's remake. From David Whalen's personal collection. Sold in the gift shop originally. 'Can't Buy Me Love'." I'm trying to pin down what that means.
Two readings:
(a) These are Whalen's artist remakes, and those same remakes are what the gift shop sold — i.e., one version; or
(b) There were two distinct populations — original gift-shop chips and separate Whalen remakes.
Specific questions:
Is there only one version per color, or do "remake" and "gift-shop" examples differ in any way (mold, inserts, inlay, markings, thickness)?
Does "From David Whalen's personal collection" describe just the specific example that was catalogued/photographed, or all known examples?
Was there ever an original, non-remake Hard Rock Cafe "Can't Buy Me Love" chip, or were the gift-shop chips always Whalen's remakes?
Any idea how many were made / are known, and is the blue (CG193499, NotInTCR) the toughest of the four?
I have the red, white, and black and I'm trying to record provenance accurately. The entries are credited to David Sarles (blue/red/white) and Doug "Cigarman" Smith (black), so I'd especially value their input. Thanks for cataloguing these.
The chips in question at the bottom of the second image with brass inserts, the first image shows HRH tournament chips and maybe gift shop dice chips on the bottom, both sets maybe from the gift shop. Im mainly interested in the brass insert chips, what they are and what is their story.
Justin
