I'll try. Please take with many grains of salt.
An estimated 10-15 years ago, some number of metric shit-tons of faux clay were produced. I think in one run. Like 5 or 6 figure quantities in nine different colors - red, white, blue, green, black, purple, orange, gray, and yellow.
They were reportedly manufactured in China. I am not sure anyone on the forums knows where or by whom. They are injection-molded chips with crosshatching. Each chip features a large injection dot on the inner ring of the inlay area. Some people would remove those with razor/exact-o blades.
Faux Clay chips, as they came to be known, behave remarkably like "real" compression-molded clay chips, which made them wildly popular in the early days of chiptalk.net as a cheap alternative to more expensive chips. In particular, they stack like bricks and feel/sound/shuffle/etc. much like a blank, solid, CPC-type clay chip (for a fraction of the price). They were sold on 5stardeals.com, discountcasinogear.com, and many other drop-ship website retailers.
They had some generic description like 9.5g dice casino chips, and cost between $0.045 and $0.15-ish per chip depending on the order quantity. It was not uncommon for shipping charges to exceed the cost of a playable set.
A couple members named CaptnAllIn (sp.) and OldCycles (RIP sir) were the official unofficial leaders of the faux clay movement. There was a thread, which is one of the longest in the first 9 years of the site, called "OFFICIAL MEMBERS of the FAUX CLAY NATION." The entrance requirement was to post a photo or a breakdown of your set.
Early moderators of the forum, such as (I think) Matthew and Jojobinks, had sets with custom labels and stuff. As the word of their awesomeness spread and more people bought big sets of them, some of the colors began to sell out. I think yellow was first, then orange, blue, and maybe purple. Gray followed, until a bunch were later found, then green and black. So it was down to some tens of thousands of red and white chips remaining for some time. And the rediscovered gray inventory for a while.
People tried hot-stamping them, which didn't work well for some reason, then cold-stamping them with rubber stamps and permanent white Staz On ink. Eventually, some enterprising member developed a way to dye the white chips different colors by submerging them in some sort of laundry dye. The whites then sold out and members made some sweet semi-custom sets in this manner. So it was down to red.
As the first to sell out, yellow faux achieved cult status within the nation and people with large quantities of them were greatly revered. At some point, I stopped keeping track. People with merchant accounts on 5stardeals were able to check the remaining quantities available and would post them from time to time.
As mentioned briefly above, the mold/machinery/materials used in the manufacturing of the chips was sought in attempt to motivate another run of the chips being produced. There was a strong desire to do so, and I think funding and backers and the like. However, their source was determined to be indeterminate - perhaps one of the last great mysteries of an age where things like that are increasingly recorded.
For a time, people recommended the 10g Soprano chips (featuring 3 sets of double stripes, and so named for their appearance on the TV series) and the heavier version of Super Diamond chips as cheap alternatives. Neither came close to the price/quality/excellence of the Mighty Faux Clay, but of the two I prefer the former. After faux clay were all gone, there was a time when sets/racks of them sold for upwards of $0.30 (occasionally $0.40-$0.50) per chip.
Anyway, faux clay gradually faded away into memory over time and China Clays somehow came about. Maybe as a result of members' and sponsors' efforts (Joe/PGI comes to mind) but I was away from the forums for a while at that time. Perhaps someone else can correct anything I may have butchered and pick the story up from there.
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TLDR: Not to be confused with China Clays, Faux Clay chips were cheaper and their performance was more highly regarded than any other bottom-shelf offerings (think dice chips) in the earlier days of this forum community. They had a loyal following and are no longer available except on the secondary market.
