Wanted THC Roulette, Fleur De Lis Chips (1 Viewer)

[Hairy_Crocodile]

Hey all!!

I'm looking for a bunch of these THC Roulette chips with the Fleur De Lis inlay.
I dont have concrete numbers in my head, but I'd like few barrels to a rack at least of each color I can find!

Whether you have you have just 1 or 2 chips, or whole racks of these things, feel free to post and show me what you have!
I'll buy whatever you got

 

[CrazyEddie]

Following this with interest. I hope you find what you're looking for; please keep us posted with whatever you discover! I believe these are quite uncommon, and would love to build a small collection like this myself (but with a different symbol - don't worry, no competition here! )

 

[kaimat]

Are you set on THCs? If you're ok with paranoids they would be much easier to find.

 

[CrazyEddie]

If you were interested in Paranoids, there's a very nice fleur-de-lis set on eBay right now: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Ab...ite-Fleur-De-Lis-Poker-Chip-Wooden-Rack-Rare/

The asking price of $800 for 300 chips is ridiculous, though. These chips aren't exactly rare, although complete sets like this don't come up all that often. The caddy is pretty nice and adds somewhat to the value, but even so, $800 is a lot to ask. The seller is probably banking on the Abercrombie and Fitch name to carry that price.

Much more reasonable is this one: https://www.ebay.com/itm/297-Vintage-Fleur-de-Lis-Horse-Head-Poker-Chips/

$200 for not quite 300 chips is still a little high for Paranoids, although again playable sets are somewhat uncommon as opposed to small lots. These also don't look to be in as nice a condition as the previous listing.

Either way, note that Paranoids feel very, very different from Paulsons, so even though they share the same symbol, these are nothing at all like the chips you've recently acquired.

They do, however, have the advantage that you can probably get your hands on them without a life-long quest.

 

[Hairy_Crocodile]

I'm pretty set on THCs, I'll try to find as many as I can. It'll probably be my grail quest to complete a small set

 

[Esmerelda]

Sorry, noob question but what are Paranoids?

 

[CrazyEddie]

Sorry, noob question but what are Paranoids?

Older chips with symbols on them.

They predate the rise of modern casino poker chips, dating from the early 20th century through to the mid 20th century. They're compression-molded out of a material called "Paranoid", which is a composite that includes one of the early plastics, probably a variety of celluloid. The symbol inlay is a die-cut shape rather than a round printed inlay as is common today. Paranoid chips were manufactured by the US Playing Card Company, and the name "Paranoid" is probably a brand name specific to USPCC for the material (otherwise it might be more simply and generically known as "celluloid").

Here's a thread with a lot more information: https://www.pokerchipforum.com/threads/help-for-identify-an-old-roulette-wheelcheck-set.61887/

When people talk about Paranoid chips they usually mean the ones with symbols, but they were also made with die-cut letters, and there's yet a third kind that were engraved rather than using die-cut inlays. Here's examples from an old advertisement:

And here's an example of what you can typically find on eBay:

 

[Esmerelda]

Thanks for your fabulous answer! Heading towards the rabbit hole again...