Looking for more info on chips I came across (1 Viewer)

[RDXL]

This is my first post here and I just recently started collecting chips.

I recently came into a large number of blue $10 chips gold stamped with RFP. I received them in a box of chips with others that I suspect were from a closed down local cardroom. I have never come across 10$ chips before but they are clearly well made and held up the test of time with nearly all of them in very good+ condition. I noticed there is a small manufacturing mark / circle on the inner indent circle on the $10 side of every one of them. The lettering is very shiny and indented into the chip (not just painted on.) They are as heavy as any cardroom / casino chip I've ever played with. Anyone know more about this style of chip or what it might be made of?

I have attached some photos. Thanks!

 

[200 Motels]

These are plastic sluggos that don't have much value. These are mass produced plastic chips, unfortunately.

You'll see a post from earlier today where it's the consensus that a different version of these chips classified as less than desirable. Heavy isn't an actual good characteristic of a poker chip.

 

[dukeshow33]

Put a Bears logo on them! #DaBears

 

[allforcharity]

That little "manufacturing dot" is the injection mold pip, a sign that you're looking at a mass produced plastic product. Most (all?) 39mm plastic chips that weigh 11.5g or more have some sort of metal disk inside to enhance weight.

To be sure, higher end plastic chips use the same manufacturing processes, usually in multiple steps. But they usually take quality control processes a bit further, like machining off the mold pip, lathing, and polishing.

 

[CrazyEddie]

They're injection-molded plastic with a metal insert for added weight (a "metal slug"). They're mass-market chips, as opposed to higher-end consumer chips (which are a step-up in quality) or casino-grade chips (which are the highest quality). They use the same injection mold as the chips in the other post that @200 Motels linked to, but with a different set of colors - blue base, orange inserts, and black inlays as opposed to (for example) blue, orange, and white.

The shiny lettering is that's indented into the chip is called a "hotstamp". It's made of gold-colored thin foil that's pressed into the surface of the chip using a heated die. Hotstamping is a common and simple way of customizing poker chips that's been in use since the mid-20th century; you'll find it on chips used in home games and in small card clubs, although even large casinos used hotstamps for some of their low-value chips (but it's a lot less common now than it used to be).

Metal-slugged chips usually range in weight from about 11 grams to about 14 grams; these are apparently on the heavy side at 14 grams. Most casinos use chips that weigh around 8.5 to 10.5 grams and don't contain metal inserts (although some do!).

Mass-market slugged plastic chips like these are pretty durable, moreso than the chips most casinos use. They're made of a harder plastic than most casino chips. That harder plastic also gives them a different feel - they're usually a lot more slippery than casino chips, making them harder to stack and harder to handle.

$10 is an unusual denomination, and most people here don't recommend including it in chipset breakdown. Ones, fives, and twenty-fives (or twenties) are more efficient, meaning you can support the same size game with fewer chips (and thus spending less money and having fewer chips to haul around).

The round manufacturing mark you spotted is called a "witness mark" and is an artifact of the injection-molding process. Most injection-molded parts have to be ejected from the mold once they've cooled, so they're pushed out of the mold by a retractable pin within the mold. Those pins are called ejector pins, and they leave a round mark on the mostly-cooled-but-still-slightly-flexible part when they push it out of the mold. High-end plastic chips used by casinos are designed to avoid having such marks, or are finished using machining (such as tumbling or lathing) so as to remove artifacts that would otherwise be left by the molding process.

I think the colors used on that chip and the good condition of the shiny hotstamp make the chip rather handsome. The monogram ("RFP") makes them somewhat less attractive, since those are someone else's initials, not mine (and probably not yours either, I'm guessing).

Welcome to the forum!

 

[Colquhoun]

They’re also known “ace king suited” chips. They’re all over Google.

 

[RDXL]

Wow you all are wonderful! Thank you so much for the detailed explanation this is even more info than I was hoping to get! I did a bit more digging and found other similar chips from a place called "Royal Flush Poker" which I believe the RFP alludes to. The cardroom seems to have existed in my city some decades ago though hasn't been open as long as I've resided here.

Thank you again so much for all the great information. I have a feeling I'll be sticking around here

 

[CrazyEddie]

I did a bit more digging and found other similar chips from a place called "Royal Flush Poker" which I believe the RFP alludes to. The cardroom seems to have existed in my city some decades ago though hasn't been open as long as I've resided here.

That's pretty awesome. Congratulations, you're now a poker chip historian!

... and a vintage poker chip collector.