Manufacturer: Classic Poker Chips (CPC)
Mold: MD-50 (DIASQUARE)
Inlay Designer: @Johnny5
I'm proud to finally present The Ironbound Lounge! This is a project that I was very excited about when drafting ideas that had ties to where I first grew up in Newark, New Jersey. The theme of the set is based around the city of Newark, specifically, the Ironbound section of the city. My grandparents (father's parents) emigrated there from Portugal in 1973. This is where my parents met, grew up, and went to school together. The Ironbound section of the city has the Portuguese culture ingrained as a result of the high numbers of Portuguese immigrants that arrived mostly in the 1960's and 1970's. It gets the nickname of "The Ironbound" due to the high number of factories in that area of the city and that manufacturing was the primary basis of the local economy that provided the most jobs for the residents of the city that provided livelihood for most of these Portuguese immigrants, including my grandfather, whom worked at a leather factory to support his family previously not knowing any English or otherwise having any other skills in any kind of trade.
I'm made this set on the MD-50 (DIASQUARE) mold for a few reasons. The first is that I like the aesthetics of the mold design itself (that's the most important, right?). The second is that the history and use of the hub mold (or "square" mold, cousin to the current MD-50 mold, I believe it's named the MD-33 mold something like that) can be traced all the way back to the Mason and Co. days back in the 1930's before they were bought by Burt and Co., the company that manufactured most of the current molds that CPC uses to this day. The hub mold has since been retired, but the MD-50 mold is very similar and was also made by Burt and Co. just after they absorbed Mason and Co. Mason and Co. had a factory and headquarters in the peak era of industrial Newark, guess where? The Ironbound.
This design was an absolute blast to work with J5 on, and he absolutely nailed it right on the head. I have very fond memories of taking the train into Newark, even after my family moved away into the suburbs, of walking down Ferry Street and taking a look at all of the local shops and restaurants. There are a lot of little restaurants where the locals get together and watch soccer games and have a meal or two that are called "clubs" or "lounges", sipping on beer, or sangria in warmer months. Sangria is a drink ingrained into Portuguese and Spanish culture, using wine, brandy, lemon lime soda, orange juice, and infused with cut up fresh fruit (apples, oranges, berries mostly) served chilled and absolutely refreshing on a warm, humid New Jersey summer day. The inlay on the chips pays homage to his, showing a sangria pitcher and glass. Hence the name "The Ironbound Lounge" was born. I actually had a local say that they looked up the name on Google just to make sure it wasn't a real place, which is a testament to J5's design work, as they thought that The Ironbound Lounge was a real place. However, for a night of cards, you can hang out, bust balls, and sip some sangria when I transform my basement into The Ironbound Lounge for the night.
I made this set to have both limit and no limit capabilities to give the set versatility and playability from anything from 0.10/0.20 all the way up to a small $1/$2 game. The orange NCV chip was made to offer flexability to use it as a frac, mostly as a dime or as a quarter depending on stakes. 50 cent chips go into play for microstakes but are omitted with 0.25/0.25 stakes or higher.
Without further ado, the pron, enjoy!
Chip colors and edge spots:
NCV frac: Base: DG Tiger, Spots: Gray and Charcoal
Half Dollar: Base: Light Green, Spots: Retro Red, Bright White, DG Yellow
$1: Base: DG Peacock, Spots: DG Arc Yellow, DG Pink
$5: Base: DG Yellow: Spots, Retro Lavender, Purple
$20: Base: Black, Spots, Mandarin Red, Canary
Starting Stack and Barrel pron:
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