Help Identify 9g Top Hat and Cane Chips (2 Viewers)

[macleanj]

I am in process of upgrading from dice chips to a cash set. However I have a set of 200, 100 red, 100 purple chips I am trying to identify.

From the top hat and cane I am thinking they may be Paulson?

They are from the mid 80's, my father purchased in Las Vegas. He liked to play blackjack which is why I assume there were only 200 chips in total.

Would be interested to learn more about these and also any potential value.

They are in excellent condition. I don't think they were ever really used other than when I was a kid I took them out and looked as them once in a while. They still have clay dust on them.

Appreciate any input.

 

[Marius L]

Paulson THC (Top Hat and Cane) chips.

The hotstamp is a generic one, called "starburst".

Looks like great condition.

Do a couple searches for starburst and you'll find plenty info.

Edit to add:

Thread example here

And a photo courtesy of @Irish. These chips come in pretty much every paulson color. Many people on here enjoy collecting them.

 

[macleanj]

Thanks Marius. Appreciate the info!

 

[Marius L]

Thanks Marius. Appreciate the info!

Reds are one of the more common colors and worth a little less than the purples. Ive not been buying/selling any starburst solid THC chips myself, but I beliebe both of these racks probably would be worth between $1-$2/chip.

 

[RichMahogany]

@davesilver88

 

[upNdown]

Reds are one of the more common colors and worth a little less than the purples. Ive not been buying/selling any starburst solid THC chips myself, but I beliebe both of these racks probably would be worth between $1-$2/chip.

Given their apparent pristine condition, I’ll take the over. I sold a rack of purple starbursts in may for $340, and these look a lot better. Granted the market has taken a dip since then, but I bet if this purple rack listed for sale for $300, it would sell in minutes.
And yes, red is common and usually sells for the minimum, but these look so good I bet they’re a $200 rack, give or take.

 

[aggie]

The purples looks like they have purple/purple 3d14 spots

 

[upNdown]

The purples looks like they have purple/purple 3d14 spots

Wow!

 

[macleanj]

Wow!
View attachment 1034321

I noticed this also just when I took the pictures. It is not really visible to the eye. It seems ro be the clay dust on the chip.

 

[upNdown]

I noticed this also just when I took the pictures. It is not really visible to the eye. It seems ro be the clay dust on the chip.

Could be dust, but most likely they’re kind of unique.
Do you know how clay chips are made? They have a circle of clay of the base color. Then for chips with edge spots, they punch out the spaces for the spots and replace them with little hunks of clay of a different color. Then the whole thing is compressed (and baked I think - the whole process is proprietary and kind of top secret) and what you end up with is a solid chip that’s actually made up of separate pieces of clay.
Occasionally we’ll see chips like this where it looks like they punched out spaces for edge spots, but then replaced them with the same base color clay - like maybe they made a mistake and never meant those chips to have edge spots. The result is what you see on your chips. Most people would t even give it a second look - I didn’t notice it at first glance. But chip geeks see that stuff.

 

[Colquhoun]

I noticed this also just when I took the pictures. It is not really visible to the eye. It seems ro be the clay dust on the chip.

I cant imagine clay dust forming like that in the 3d14 pattern. More likely, what appears to be dust is the fibers that are embedded within the chip that are more exposed when it is pressed. It's usually harder to see this edge, but since the spots and the base are the same color, the fibers create this halo effect.
Very cool.

 

[Jimulacrum]

I'm not the most knowledgeable member of this club, but I can't say I've ever seen a chip with edge spots apparently added by accident in the same color as the chip. Nor do I recall ever seeing starbursts with edge spots.

 

[Marius L]

I'm not the most knowledgeable member of this club, but I can't say I've ever seen a chip with edge spots apparently added by accident in the same color as the chip. Nor do I recall ever seeing starbursts with edge spots.

Definitely some spotted starbursts out there.

 

[BGinGA]

I'm not the most knowledgeable member of this club, but I can't say I've ever seen a chip with edge spots apparently added by accident in the same color as the chip. Nor do I recall ever seeing starbursts with edge spots.

There are a few racks of spotted starburst-stamped chips out there, but not many. I owned (and sold) a couple.

I've also seen a few examples of chip slugs that had base color spots intentionally added back in, usually as spacers between other spots/colors (also not very common). BCC used to do this trick occasionally.