gopherblue
Straight Flush
It's been a while since we had some new pr0n of the TRK persuasion. I submit for your consideration, the New China Club:
The New China Club was a Reno, NV, casino opened in 1952 by Bill Fong, a WWII vet originally born in China. It was one of the first, if not the first, truly integrated casinos in Nevada. Open to anyone, the New China Club welcomed Asians and African-Americans at a time in our history when other casinos did not. Bill Fong was very active in supporting the African-American community of Nevada, and in addition to being involved in the NAACP, founded scholarships for minority students to attend college at the University of Nevada. The New China Club closed in the early 1970s.
The New China Club chips are old-school T.R. Kings, with a fantastic mid-century look due to the font styles and overall design of the inlay/hotstamps.
The chips feature two of my favorite TRK spot patterns, and the colors are gorgeous (although the black/blue color choice for the frac is a bit odd given the dark turquoise $1 chip, but they still work fine together due to the vibrancy of the $1's red half-moon spots). The set also includes one of my all-time favorite color combos on the $5 chip: yellow and grey. While this is a Reno set, the colors are those more typically seen in California cardrooms.
The hotstamps and inlays are vintage TR King--I don't know who was working in TRK's art/design department for most of the 1940s-60s (or if there even was an art/design department), but TRK has some of the most amazing hotstamps and inlays produced during that era. No other chip manufacturer even comes close. The mixture of typefaces, including the roman script and chinese characters, just work beautifully. For what it's worth, the Chinese characters on the inlays and hotstamps literally translate as:
新 = New
中國 = China
I’ve been building this set for a very long time--at times along the way I wasn't certain it would actually come together. As you may know, the $1 chips—and the fracs to a more limited extent—were available in quantity and several PCFers acquired a few racks. The $5s, however, were harder to come by and have been much more elusive in quantity. For that reason, I am still seeking New China $5s. If anyone has some $5s, in any quantity, or knows of a source, please let me know--I would be tremendously grateful.
The obvious omission to this set are the higher denoms. Despite the New China Club's reknown, it wasn't a huge casino. The $5s were the real workhorse large denomination at the casino and few higher denoms were needed. As I understand it, there were only a couple of racks of hundos ever made, and no one is certain how many $25s were manufactured by TRK. Thus, the $25s and $100s are extremely rare. There are now only a handful of $100s known to exist and they command five-figure(!) prices. I am only aware of a single $25 in the wild, a well-used and cancelled/drilled example. But it is a bit of a unicorn--the owner doesn't show it off and it isn't even pictured in the Chip Guide!
Because of the lack of higher denominations, this set is currently limited to .50/$1 short-handed or other lower buy-in games. But as I mentioned, I am still seeking more $5s, and I hope to add a few more racks to make the set a bit more flexible. All of the fracs and $1s are mint, and a little more than half of the $5s are also mint.
1,000 chips. Breakdown:
100 x .50c
300 x $1
600 x $5
Total bank: $3350
But enough talk; on to the pr0n:
The New China Club was a Reno, NV, casino opened in 1952 by Bill Fong, a WWII vet originally born in China. It was one of the first, if not the first, truly integrated casinos in Nevada. Open to anyone, the New China Club welcomed Asians and African-Americans at a time in our history when other casinos did not. Bill Fong was very active in supporting the African-American community of Nevada, and in addition to being involved in the NAACP, founded scholarships for minority students to attend college at the University of Nevada. The New China Club closed in the early 1970s.
The New China Club chips are old-school T.R. Kings, with a fantastic mid-century look due to the font styles and overall design of the inlay/hotstamps.
The chips feature two of my favorite TRK spot patterns, and the colors are gorgeous (although the black/blue color choice for the frac is a bit odd given the dark turquoise $1 chip, but they still work fine together due to the vibrancy of the $1's red half-moon spots). The set also includes one of my all-time favorite color combos on the $5 chip: yellow and grey. While this is a Reno set, the colors are those more typically seen in California cardrooms.
The hotstamps and inlays are vintage TR King--I don't know who was working in TRK's art/design department for most of the 1940s-60s (or if there even was an art/design department), but TRK has some of the most amazing hotstamps and inlays produced during that era. No other chip manufacturer even comes close. The mixture of typefaces, including the roman script and chinese characters, just work beautifully. For what it's worth, the Chinese characters on the inlays and hotstamps literally translate as:
新 = New
中國 = China
I’ve been building this set for a very long time--at times along the way I wasn't certain it would actually come together. As you may know, the $1 chips—and the fracs to a more limited extent—were available in quantity and several PCFers acquired a few racks. The $5s, however, were harder to come by and have been much more elusive in quantity. For that reason, I am still seeking New China $5s. If anyone has some $5s, in any quantity, or knows of a source, please let me know--I would be tremendously grateful.
The obvious omission to this set are the higher denoms. Despite the New China Club's reknown, it wasn't a huge casino. The $5s were the real workhorse large denomination at the casino and few higher denoms were needed. As I understand it, there were only a couple of racks of hundos ever made, and no one is certain how many $25s were manufactured by TRK. Thus, the $25s and $100s are extremely rare. There are now only a handful of $100s known to exist and they command five-figure(!) prices. I am only aware of a single $25 in the wild, a well-used and cancelled/drilled example. But it is a bit of a unicorn--the owner doesn't show it off and it isn't even pictured in the Chip Guide!
Because of the lack of higher denominations, this set is currently limited to .50/$1 short-handed or other lower buy-in games. But as I mentioned, I am still seeking more $5s, and I hope to add a few more racks to make the set a bit more flexible. All of the fracs and $1s are mint, and a little more than half of the $5s are also mint.
1,000 chips. Breakdown:
100 x .50c
300 x $1
600 x $5
Total bank: $3350
But enough talk; on to the pr0n:
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