BCC Protege $1 Question (1 Viewer)

[Banz]

Has anyone else encountered over diameter BCC Protege $1 chips? They aren’t listed in the variants guide. I suppose this kills their value if nobody else has them. Pictures show them stacked alternating with normal diameter chips.

 

[rowlin]

There was discussion during the design contest about whether they should be larger than InPlay chips (also Cigar & Snifter mold) or the same diameter.

I thought the preference was for larger chips, but it appears both were made at some point.

 

[harrysallout]

I can’t recall which chips but there were diameter differences between batches.

@Split @Joe Harris

 

[Banz]

I ordered a bunch of $1 chips around 2010 when Sidepot had limited stock left and wound up with some of these slightly larger diameter ones.

 

[Split]

Has anyone else encountered over diameter BCC Protege $1 chips? They aren’t listed in the variants guide. I suppose this kills their value if nobody else has them. Pictures show them stacked alternating with normal diameter chips.
View attachment 1352235View attachment 1352236

Welcome to the "I documented a new Protege / Protégé variant" club! Unfortunately, you are correct that the over-diameter chips may have limited appeal to those trying to add on that prefer to have chips of the same diameter. Is the face of the over diameter chips as shown in your pic, or is that one of the normal diameter chips?

There was discussion during the design contest about whether they should be larger than InPlay chips (also Cigar & Snifter mold) or the same diameter.

I thought the preference was for larger chips, but it appears both were made at some point.

The Protege line was made with the larger diameter. That's what makes the over-diameter Protege chips even more unusual. Unlike other BCC sets I'm aware of that had multiple diameters (standard and the so-called "heavyweight" option that had a slightly larger diameter), the Protege line is mostly the heavyweight option with a handful of known racks of an even larger diameter. I'm not aware of any other BCC lines that had this even larger diameter show up, but I would love to hear about them if they exist.

I ordered a bunch of $1 chips around 2010 when Sidepot had limited stock left and wound up with some of these slightly larger diameter ones.

That's great to have a time frame, and that matches my conjecture about their origin. The design and printing on the inlay of the over-diameter chips is visually consistent across denominations, and some of the over-diameter chips are the supplemental $20s. My guess is that some or all of an order around the time that the supplemental denominations were produced wound up with the larger diameter. You buying over-diameter chips in 2010 is consistent with that timeline. I haven't personally handled an over-diameter $20, but the other over-diameter chips are visually distinct from other known variants in inlay printing/design and sometimes clay color as well. This suggests to me that the issue was present for an entire production run of unknown quantity. I don't have a satisfactory explanation for the oversize $20s unless their was a second order placed for them sometime after the original order. Since they're one of the most commonly found supplemental denominations (possibly even the most commonly found), it's plausible that a second order was placed.

Thanks for posting these! If you're interested, you can take a look at a thread where we like to post, pick apart, and discuss these chips:

https://www.pokerchipforum.com/threads/the-protégé-thread.22963/

 

[Banz]

The chips have both a 0.4mm larger diameter and are 0.2mm thicker than the others. I know this doesn't seem like a lot of difference but it is easily noticeable when many chips are stacked together. A stack of 40 of the larger chips is the same height as a stack of 41 of the normal sized chips.

The attached images show 2 normal diameter chips on the left and two oversized on the right. The difference isn’t noticeable until you stack them.

 

[joeyshin]

This happened with a bunch of BCC sets. Diameter issues from different runs. My high roller set had fracs that were slightly smaller than the other chips. You could tell when shuffling mixed stacks

 

[Split]

This happened with a bunch of BCC sets. Diameter issues from different runs. My high roller set had fracs that were slightly smaller than the other chips. You could tell when shuffling mixed stacks

BCC had many well documented issues, but this one most likely isn't their fault. The BCC High Roller chips were made in more than one production run by more than one owner of the design. My understanding is that the v1 chips produced by the original owner were the smaller diameter. The v2 chips (I think these had at least two poduction runs) commissioned by a subsequent owner used the "heavyweight" option with the larger diameter. If your fracs were v1 and the others v2, then that was per customer intention. I don't know whether or not the heavyweight option existed when the original High Roller order was placed, but maybe someone else here knows. There are other examples of sets with mismatched diameters that I don't think were the customer's intention such as the MGK GCR set and at least one of HPC's T-mold offerings, but I give BCC a pass on the High Roller diameters. The spinners present in one of the v2 production runs are an entirely different story and an example of an otherwise awesome chip being significantly diminished.

 

[maxim_666666]

I don't think these were specially tuned "heavy" and "light" chips. Someone just tuned the machine poorly during their shift. Or banal wear of the grinding wheel. And it seems to us that these are different batches. BBC has always had poor quality control. But if you look at these chips through the eyes of the manufacturer, these are completely normal chips that are suitable for the game. I also found similar chips at ASM/CPC, but never in sets, only in samples. They have very good quality control.