What Do I Have Here? (1 Viewer)

Papasatyr

Two Pair
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Some time ago I purchased this set of purple Nevada molds and blue DIECAR molds. Every chip in the box is straight up mint condition. A note suggests the chips are from circa 1988. This would be a nice find, one I might parcel this one out to y’all, but there’s something peculiar about this set…

The blue DIECARs have some interesting hot stamps. Most have nonsensical stuff like three concentric circles, random initials, denominations, a horse head or two, sometimes with radically different hot stamps on the front and back. But then there the 11 very curious chips…

11 chips have hot stamps that match an existing casino chip from the late 1980’s. Same mold, same markings. Most of the 11 are mis-stamped chips, bad foil, and the like. One or two might pass muster. See the pics below.

So what do I have? The most reasonable guess I can come up with is this a cull set from Burt Co for chips that were not good enough to sell to the casino. Maybe it’s a hot stamping practice box, or perhaps chips that got stamped while the machine is heating or some such.

Or perhaps something more nefarious? Bill Borland’s alleged counterfeits were from around 1991, but they were on these molds. Could these be a counterfeiter’s cull or practice box? 1986 is five years before the alleged counterfeits, and Mr. Borland preferred to neatly line up the mold markings with the hot stamps which these are not.

Still, the question remains: what do I have here?
 

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I don’t know anything about any of that, except that you’ve got a sweet sweet Paulson case there.
 
How many blue & pink Nevada chips do you have ?

Please let me know if you are looking to sell them.
 
How many blue & pink Nevada chips do you have ?

Please let me know if you are looking to sell them.
As soon as I can de-authenticate this as nothing special, I do plan to put the purple Nevada mold up for you piranhas to frenzy over.

About 300 blank lavender Nevada molds and about 200 blue DIECARs with various hot stamps. That one blue Nevada mold in the pics is, I think, the only one in the box.

My holdup is I would hate if parting this out somehow ruins some piece of poker history, whatever the case may be. I’m considering hitting the Chip Con in Vegas come June, to see if I can hunt down David Spragg, my best guess as to someone who can authenticate or otherwise tell me what these are.
 
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