Vintage 1970s chips (1 Viewer)

[kamikazeronin]

New member and new to online forums in general so I apologize if I am posting this in the wrong place.

I just wanted to get your thoughts on this set I found for sale online. 1970s vintage set in original wood box. I am assuming they are plastic injection molded, probably worthless and with awkward denoms for any kind of cash games except the most basic home setup with a few pals..but I like the colors and the rarity factor of owning something vintage and well preserved.

Let me know your thoughts, I might make the seller a cheeky offer. What would you guys pay for something like this? Its 171 chips in total. Would you even play with these if your host busted them out for a cash game with 4/5 players?

Love from Spain

 

[CrazyEddie]

I just wanted to get your thoughts on this set I found for sale online. 1970s vintage set in original wood box. I am assuming they are plastic injection molded, probably worthless and with awkward denoms for any kind of cash games except the most basic home setup with a few pals

Around here those are typically considered "jetons" rather than chips. Americans consider poker chips to be round and (mostly) uniform in size, and jetons like this where the different denominations are different sizes and shapes are not common at all.

They're definitely injection-molded plastic. High-quality poker chips are compression-molded "clay" (which is actually plastic mixed with clay minerals) but I'm pretty sure shaped jetons like this were never made out of compression-molded clay. I know that older jetons and similar types of gaming tokens were often made out of mother-of-pearl, and then later when plastic became common the jetons were made out of plastic that resembled mother-of-pearl, i.e. they were often made to be translucent or iridescent. So for this type of gaming token, injection-molded plastic is nearly universal and on its own doesn't indicate that the jetons are not high-quality or valuable.

..but I like the colors and the rarity factor of owning something vintage and well preserved.

I feel the same way!

Let me know your thoughts, I might make the seller a cheeky offer. What would you guys pay for something like this? Its 171 chips in total.

I definitely couldn't tell you what they're worth. It's just not something you see often around here, so there's not a good way to determine a fair market value. I think most PCF members wouldn't be interested in them, although a few might.

Your best bet is to check prices on eBay, especially the final prices for listings that actually sold. Sets of jetons like this show up on eBay pretty frequently, just not as frequently as regular poker chips. I've seen a large variation in styles, appearance, quality, and price. You'll have to use your judgment to decide which of the sets you see on eBay are most like the one you're considering buying now. Searching for "antique poker chips" or "vintage poker chips" is probably your best bet to find them, although most of what you'll find will be regular poker chips instead of these different-shaped ones.

Here's one set that I found, although these are actual mother-of-pearl and quite a bit older. Here's another one, much more recent, and smaller.

Would you even play with these if your host busted them out for a cash game with 4/5 players?

I definitely would, at least once, just for the novelty, but I suspect most poker players (including me!) would greatly prefer using chips over jetons.

Thanks for posting these! I happen to think they look pretty neat. Good luck, and welcome to the forum!

 

[FDLmold]

I'm not 100% sure about injection plastic. That's obviously most likely, but I'm getting a bakelite / catalin vibe from these too, though I'm hardly an expert. Worth a bit of investigating, depending on asking price of course.

 

[GianThaMan]

They're definitely injection-molded plastic. High-quality poker chips are compression-molded "clay" (which is actually plastic mixed with clay minerals) but I'm pretty sure shaped jetons like this were never made out of compression-molded clay. I know that older jetons and similar types of gaming tokens were often made out of mother-of-pearl, and then later when plastic became common the jetons were made out of plastic that resembled mother-of-pearl, i.e. they were often made to be translucent or iridescent. So for this type of gaming token, injection-molded plastic is nearly universal and on its own doesn't indicate that the jetons are not high-quality or valuable.

These aren't injection-molded plastic. They're cut out of a sheet of material (which appears to be celluloid in this case) and then stamped with the denomination. High-quality plaques and jetons are also made this way, though out of laminated acetates, and with a few added steps to add some flair, make them cleaner, and make them much more secure. You can't efficiently injection mold multiple disconnected layers and inserts, and even if you could, pure cellulose acetate is a very bad material for injection molding.

 

[Colquhoun]

They look very similar to the ones in this thread:
https://www.pokerchipforum.com/threads/set-identification.68522

 

[orsonberger]

Hello, the fun is hunting I have bought authentic bargains for casino chips in second-hand pages, Wallapop, or second-hand markets Rastro in Madrid or Encants or San Antonio in Barcelona the best thing about these purchases is that you do not pay giant bills for transport or import taxes.

 

[CrazyEddie]

These aren't injection-molded plastic. They're cut out of a sheet of material (which appears to be celluloid in this case) and then stamped with the denomination. High-quality plaques and jetons are also made this way, though out of laminated acetates, and with a few added steps to add some flair, make them cleaner, and make them much more secure. You can't efficiently injection mold multiple disconnected layers and inserts, and even if you could, pure cellulose acetate is a very bad material for injection molding.

I stand very corrected! Thanks @GianThaMan ! With all the focus on poker chips I forgot that there's many different ways to skin a plastic cat.

There were some very old poker chips made in a similar manner - cut/stamped out of sheet goods - that were used as advertising chips for the sheet goods supplier. I speculated about them here.

 

[steevbe]

Hello, the fun is hunting I have bought authentic bargains for casino chips in second-hand pages, Wallapop, or second-hand markets Rastro in Madrid or Encants or San Antonio in Barcelona the best thing about these purchases is that you do not pay giant bills for transport or import taxes.
View attachment 737694

Correct, customs are crazy with the new European postal services. Nice racks!

 

[upNdown]

I stand very corrected! Thanks @GianThaMan ! With all the focus on poker chips I forgot that there's many different ways to skin a plastic cat.

There were some very old poker chips made in a similar manner - cut/stamped out of sheet goods - that were used as advertising chips for the sheet goods supplier. I speculated about them here.

While we're correcting you, I don't think these should be called jetons, either. These seem flat - almost two dimensional? I'm no expert, but jetons typically have a roundish mold, that makes you wonder if they stack well, don't they?

 

[CrazyEddie]

If anyone has a fuller explanation of how the terms are commonly used I would love to know about it! I'm only going by what I've seen, and I don't see either sort of gaming token (round tokens like @orsonberger showed, or multiple-shaped tokens like @kamikazeronin showed) discussed very often.

 

[steevbe]

If anyone has a fuller explanation of how the terms are commonly used I would love to know about it! I'm only going by what I've seen, and I don't see either sort of gaming token (round tokens like @orsonberger showed, or multiple-shaped tokens like @kamikazeronin showed) discussed very often.

It's largely also a language problem. In English you have token, chip, cheque, jeton, while in Italian for exemple they only use the term "gettoni". Mainly you have two great groups. The Anglo-Saxo system containing largely the 1.55" or 39 mm chips and the French system where the modules varies as a function of the denomination. Simply: if it's around 39-40 mm, round and doesn't have flattened edges and is largely made of plastic (or similar) it's a chip. Like the roulettes from Monte Carlo. If it's various sizes and round it's a jeton and if it's various sizes and not round it's a plaque. For me it are all items that replace money in an efficient way. Jo from Belgium.

 

[CrazyEddie]

“The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.”​

― James D. Nicoll

One common thing English does is steal words from several different languages that all mean the same thing in those other languages, but then use those several different words to mean different things in English.

For example, English uses the Saxon word "sheep" to refer to the animal but the French word "mutton" (mouton) to refer to the meat. Another example: the Italian word gelato means "ice cream" but English-speakers use the word "gelato" to mean "the type of ice cream that's popular in Italy" which is distinct from the stuff that English-speakers are talking about when they say "ice cream".

No surprise that we'd be trampling all over whatever other people call "jetons".

 

[TX_Golf_N_Poker]

Well dang. Looks like the OP came and went. I'm wondering if he bought it and very curious what it cost. I love old stuff like this too. I just started buying some really inexpensive vintage (60s, 70s) cases on eBay. Of course they come with plastic chips that are likely worthless. I'm wondering if there is a thread for discussing these old items? If not, I might have to start one.

 

[CrazyEddie]

Keep your eyes on eBay and you'll find plenty more sets similar to the one the OP found. There's usually a few available at any one time (in my experience). You may have to hunt pretty hard to find them, though. A wide range of quality, materials, and vintage.