Pre-war chip styles? (1 Viewer)

[TonyZur]

Good evening all.

I'm tossing around the idea of a period and region correct custom chipset from CPC. Looking for pre-war, late 1930s style, and am going to go for the H-mold. I'm pretty ignorant of chip history. A few questions for any historians, or (very) old-timers:

-What edge spots and colors were in use or available during this period?
-What were common denominations? Or was it likely .05 c, $1, $5, etc? Or did gambling houses just use cash?
-What were games like back then? Cash? Was tournament style play even a thing yet?
-Were inlays used on chips back then?
-Knowing that gambling was illegal outside of Nevada in the early 30s...did any of you play in the gambling houses on B Street in Grand Coulee during the construction of the Grand Coulee Dam? Since this would make you about 110 years old...
-Do any of you know of any good sources for historic gambling house history?
-And finally, have any of you put sets together that imitate pre-war chips?

Thanks in advance for any answers, I appreciate the help this forum has been so far.

 

[AlbinoDragon]

If you are aiming for late 30's, edge spots weren't really used yet... if at all.

I have chips from the Sunflower in Reno in my collection:

http://chipguide.themogh.org/cg_chip2.php?id=NVRES3&v=1212803461

and these had no spots in 1949.

From the era you are looking to emulate, they'd be more like the Stray Antlers:

http://chipguide.themogh.org/cg_chip2.php?id=NVMCSA&v=3374054885

which are crest and seal chips, effectively inlaid no-texture no-molds from a place that was open in 1927. The story behind the Stray Antlers is it was the first casino chip with a location name on it in Nevada.

For non-Nevada and from the time you are looking for, a private club in downtown Phoenix that opened in 1924:

http://chipguide.themogh.org/cg_chip2.php?id=AZPHAC&v=924332881



You can always go to the Chip Guide:

https://www.chipguide.com/

...pick a state and look at the open and close dates to see chips from the era you are getting inspiration from.


That said, odds are you'll find lots of solids, some maybe with denominations, and most of those are going to be on the smaller value side (don't expect to see $100 chips from that era!). Also, maybe inlays, maybe hot-stamps. Again, during that time, it's going to be mix with no rhyme or reason.



Answering some of your other questions, tournament poker is relatively "new". One could argue it didn't exist before the start of the World Series, but it must have in some form. In the era you are interested in, it would have been cash games. Stud, draw and draw variants and Faro. Hold'em is a relatively "recent" creation.

Illegal or not, gambling has always been around, probably since pre-history. Just because it's illegal doesn't mean it wasn't happening. The Stray Antlers from above was an Elks (fraternal) club. Card games in the back corner of saloons were a thing in the old west. The Arizona Club was a gentlemen's club. That said, it's these very reasons why a game that was happening then likely didn't have a nice coherent chip set that was being used. Proper cash in the form of coins and silver dollars were likely used more than anything else as it didn't require a cage to go from cash to chips and back again.

Despite that, there's nothing to keep you from making a killer set that invokes the era and the feeling of that era without trying to make a direct or near direct copy of a set from that era.


Gook luck with the research and the design process. Take your time and you're likely to make a killer set.

I hope this info helps!

 

[chippitydoodah]

 

[warma]

Two issues with the Chip Guide. 1) Sometimes you get ranges- the Pioneer Club says 1940s. 2) Not everything thing has a date- anything without a date will show if you filter by “before” and “1945” including chips made this year- so you have to wade through them all.

The mold index says the H mold came about in the 1940s… so if you’re looking to make a custom set of H-mold chips, you might be pushing the pre-war timeline.

Either way, enjoy the process.

http://chipguide.themogh.org/cg_query.php

http://www.antiquegamblingchips.com/molddesign_letters.htm

 

[warma]

To answer your question on did I… I thought about it.

I bought some old dot mold chips that smelled like smoke and were worn down. I hunted for a vintage set, but I couldn’t find one that made sense to me.

So I began to move my timeline to the right. Going custom, HCEs were available in the 1940s, but really only for casinos, as were DIASQR (1941). When I bought my set, @Josh Kifer wasnt stamping and the others I knew of had stopped taking orders. So I went with inlays, moved the timeline to 1949/1950, and picked the H-mold. I tried to hold the timeline left by leveraging 1930s design elements in my inlay. It met the goal, what if the first ship I served on in the Coast Guard, a WWII-era ship, had a set of chips made?

If I get another set, it will be a late 1960s theme, the heyday of the rat pack and the casino business.

Best of luck on this journey, it’s a fun one.

 

[TX_Golf_N_Poker]

Great idea for a set and interesting thread. Posting so I will remember to come back to this later. Looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

 

[BigJackJones]

Ditto

 

[allforcharity]

There were a lot of chips in the pre WW2 era that had die cut inlays rather than spots. These are all the Paranoid chips that you see from time to time.

As for as what was going on in the hot stamp world, it was mostly solids. Likely earliest edge spots were 214 and 414.

 

[TonyZur]

Thank you all for your helpful replies and insight, "invoking the era" likely opens up more opportunities for design. Those stray antlers are awesome, another notion was a hunting themed set.