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Wanted PCA $1 --- one or two racks as mint as possible (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Carnth
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Great idea!I would like 1 or 2 racks of PCA $1 as close to mint as possible.
Specifically this version:
Pic by @VMR911
I'm hoping to add these to my Harbor Lights set that also has textured inlays!
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OP
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Is it common to have sets with textured inlays or do you sometimes get just one denomination with a textured inlay? Or are textured inlays just uncommon in general?
OP
OP
From my experience, textured inlays are not common.
Harbor Lights chips have textured inlays but don't have any $1 chips. When I saw that these PCA 1s also have textured inlays, I thought it was a match made in heaven.
If you've never encountered textured inlays, here my attempt to describe what it is....
Inlays are a "sticker" with a piece of plastic on top that are stamped into the chip during the molding process.
Chips have a "cross hatching" texture over the edge of the chip (which tends to wear away with use until it's smooth). And hot stamp chips continue the cross hatch texture across the entire face of the chip. Shown in this extreme close up.
Normal inlaid chip have the cross hatching where the hats and canes are, but a flat, slick inner surface where the plastic is compressed into the chip.
In this close up, you can see where the flat part starts and where the plastic inlay cover starts. They leave an extra bit of "flat area" around the plastic as a margin-of-error.
My guess is chips with textured inlays are compressed using the hot stamp mold. Probably by accident. Fun little story I made up:
"Hey boss, we ran 3000 chips and counting for this inlay order but we just noticed they we left the hot stamp mold on by accident. Should we stop the run and take a huge amount of time to change the molds and destroy the product we already made?"
The boss quickly thinks then answers. "Fuck it. Let it run."
"Ok, you're the boss."
"We'll say it's a new feature and say we added it to their order at no extra charge." I'm a genius, he thinks to himself.
Anyway...
Since the plastic is compressed with a textured top, the inlay is slightly distorted a similar way a lenticular image is. (You can see this in the PCA photo in the original post-especially if you zoom in on the words "casino on the admiral"). It isn't actually a 3D effect. You can, however, run your fingernail across it and get that familiar "zip zip" sound.
But, that's the only difference from "normal" chips.
That was a great explanation! Thanks for taking the time explaining. And the story is totally believable.
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