Binary jokes aside, the idea behind this actually started while thinking of my micro-stakes quarters game... For the group I'm getting, a big blind of 25 cents is more appropriate than a 25/50 cent game. I don't have a smaller frac, no nickels or dimes... I have quarters.
But got to thinking, I can use my .50 fracs as a "half" of a quarter, or 12.5 cents, or one eighth... Which was an actual unit of currency in the US and other countries, once open a time, before breaking things into hundred (per "cents") became a thing.
Back in the day, a quarter wasn't 25 of anything... it was 1/4. Hence the name.
And half a quarter is actually an old unit of coin - called a "bit." Eight bits to a dollar, like the old chant, "two bits, four bits, eight bits, a dollar!" Also the source of the term associated with pirates, "pieces of eight."
The computer term 'bit" was actually taken from the old monetary term.
At the same time I had also been playing in my head with the idea of a cash set with these denoms:
20 cents
1 dollar
5 dollars
25 dollars
Why? Because each unit is a perfect multiple of five of the previous.
Well, if you have bits, you don't actually need quarters, since two bits is a quarter. You'd need bits, and dollars... and if you want to extend the whole "perfect multiples" idea, you get 1/8, 1, 8, and 64 as your denoms.
In the bigger cash game I used to run, I'd occasionally break into my green $25s, but I've never broken out a hundo. Even the 1/2 games I've played have never needed to go beyond the greens. So if I had a set with a $64 denom, I don't think I'd ever need to break out $512 checks.
It would be easy to cut checks and count stacks, too - you'd cut 4 at a time. Two stacks of four bits is a dollar - a byte of eight bits. Coincidentally, four bits, half a byte, is a nibble.
Likewise for all the bigger denoms; a stack of 8 is the next denom up. You'd just use stacks of 8 or 16 instead of 10 or 20 to count. Although standard barrel racks of 20 x 5 or 25 x 4 lead to an oddness... On the other hand, two racks of a denom is equal to a stack of 25 of the next denom, which ain't bad.
I don't even think it would be that hard to play with... if you want to think in tens, an 8 and two singles is a ten.
Three 8's is 24... so three and a single are your classic 25.
Four 8's is a 32 bet - easily replaces a 30 bet.
I dunno, it just doesn't seem hard... and think the basic math would become routine very, very quickly.
Frankly, for 1/2 limit and 2/4 limit, the 8 denom is kinda nice - 8 is a capped big bet at 1/2, and 8 is a big bet raise at 2/4.
I don't know what I'd do for the art - binary/computer theme? Or spanish reals with pieces of eight? Or what?
Hmmm... too bad there's no F mold (a hexadecimal F is a binary 11111111.) Maybe this is more of a ceramic set...