What's inside my chip? (2 Viewers)

[bentax1978]

So I received 425 chips today that I will eventually be using in a large relabel project. Unfortunately, one of them broken during shipping (or before, doesn't really matter). Since it was already broken, I decided to remove the inlay just to see what was inside. After a bit of soaking in warm water followed by some scrapping, this is what I found (see below). It's only one one side, and doesn't appear to be a weighted slug. I'm thinking it might be an RFID chip or something, but to be honest I'm not sure.

Can anyone confirm what that is inside the chip?

 

[links_slayer]

RFID is my guess. Or a slug to get it up to official casino weight.

 

[Psypher1000]

RFID is my guess. Or a slug to get it up to official casino weight.

11.5g to be sure

 

[bentax1978]

RFID is my guess. Or a slug to get it up to official casino weight.

I don't think it's a slug. Appears to be very thin, almost like a foil sticker, which is why I was leaning towards RFID.

11.5g to be sure

The chips actually weigh 11.2g/each, which was actually a bit heavier than I was expecting. Still not "offical casino weight"

 

[links_slayer]

I don't think it's a slug. Appears to be very thin, almost like a foil sticker, which is why I was leaning towards RFID.

Yeah... I was kidding about the slug bit.

 

[bentax1978]

Yeah... I was kidding about the slug bit.

I guess the "official casino weight" line should have been my clue.

 

[BGinGA]

Since this is a real casino $100 chip, RFID antenna is my guess. More soaking/scraping is in order to remove said object for further analysis. Contents under opposite side inlay also requested (guessing nothing is there, though). Anybody ever check the red brick inlays for UV markings? Pretty sure there is no microdot.

 

[slisk250]

Buy some Casablanca hundos? Hope you still have a full rack.

 

[bentax1978]

Since this is a real casino $100 chip, RFID antenna is my guess. More soaking/scraping is in order to remove said object for further analysis. Contents under opposite side inlay also requested (guessing nothing is there, though). Anybody ever check the red brick inlays for UV markings? Pretty sure there is no microdot.

I will scrap the other side, but with the main inlay off both sides, the foil circle was visible on the one side and nothing appears to be visible on the other. I'm 99% sure there's nothing on the other side.

Haven't checked for UV markings, but there is a microdot (assuming that's what is in the pictures below).

(image flipped)

 

[bentax1978]

Buy some Casablanca hundos? Hope you still have a full rack.

Bought 625 total this week. So I can afford a couple broken ones before I have to worry about non-full racks

 

[BGinGA]

Yep, that's a microdot. Much more common on $100 chips than RFID, mostly because it's a lot less expensive. Having both would indicate a pretty paranoid casino management team..... which sorta falls right into line with having a shit-ton of different chips for each of several denominations.

 

[bentax1978]

Yep, that's a microdot. Much more common on $100 chips than RFID, mostly because it's a lot less expensive. Having both would indicate a pretty paranoid casino management team..... which sorta falls right into line with having a shit-ton of different chips for each of several denominations.

Now I'm curious if my gray Casablanca $100 chips have an RFID chip. Not looking to crack one open since I have exactly 300. As you probably know (since I think you said you have a rack), there's no microdot on those.

edit: also confirmed there's nothing on the other side of the red brick chip

 

[BGinGA]

Yeah, no microdot on the Casa gray 818 hundos. And probably not RFID, either -- I suspect that the red 818 chips were made after the grays. What is unclear is why the other two $100 chip designs exist (gray w/yellow and black w/yellow, neither with microdots)... I have two versions of the $500 chips -- beige w/microdot and dark purple without. There are at least two other $500 chip versions, too.

 

[bentax1978]

Yeah, no microdot on the Casa gray 818 hundos. And probably not RFID, either -- I suspect that the red 818 chips were made after the grays. What is unclear is why the other two $100 chip designs exist (gray w/yellow and black w/yellow, neither with microdots)... I have two versions of the $500 chips -- beige w/microdot and dark purple without. There are at least two other $500 chip versions, too.

That's strange. Looking at pictures of the different $100 Casablanca chips, I would have assumed the gray w/yellow and black w/yellow both had microdots (inside the top triangle of the logo, slightly different placement than the red chips). I don't have any to look at in person, so I can't confirm. Is that something different than a microdot?

There's also (maybe?) a 5th version that basically looks like the gray ones except black. Have you ever seen one? It's listed on http://www.themogh.org/, but I can't ever recall seeing one posted anywhere.

 

[BGinGA]

I just glanced at a couple of chips in bad lighting with no eyeglasses.

The microdot on the $500 was clear, above the logo. Didn't occur to me that it would/could be at a different location on the $100 chips. I'll recheck in a bit a report back.

And nope, never seen the black 818 in the wild. If Michael (NevadaJacks/CasablancaCasinoChips) ever had any in his major stash, he never posted on CT about 'em. Kept all of the $1 chips he had too, IIRC.

 

[sleepypiggly]

I will scrap the other side, but with the main inlay off both sides, the foil circle was visible on the one side and nothing appears to be visible on the other. I'm 99% sure there's nothing on the other side.

Haven't checked for UV markings, but there is a microdot (assuming that's what is in the pictures below).

(image flipped)

How did you get such a clear picture of the microdot? Is this from a high-res scanner?

 

[bentax1978]

How did you get such a clear picture of the microdot? Is this from a high-res scanner?

No, just my digital camera with a 1:1 macro lens. Used a tripod and 2 second delay to minimize movement. Didn't bother setting up any lighting, so it was a very long exposure (a couple seconds as I recall).

 

[sleepypiggly]

No, just my digital camera with a 1:1 macro lens. Used a tripod and 2 second delay to minimize movement. Didn't bother setting up any lighting, so it was a very long exposure (a couple seconds as I recall).

I need me some macro lens...

 

[sleepypiggly]

That thing is probably an RFID antenna, but you need to peel that layer back to make sure that it looks something like this inside.

 

[bentax1978]

I need me some macro lens...

You can usually score some really decent macro lenses (manual focus) for pretty cheap. Do you have a DSLR?

 

[sleepypiggly]

You can usually score some really decent macro lenses (manual focus) for pretty cheap. Do you have a DSLR?

Yea, a Nikon D200 that was all the rage back in 2008. I'll have to look into it at some point, thanks for letting me know. I thought it was just a high res scan.

 

[bentax1978]

That thing is probably an RFID antenna, but you need to peel that layer back to make sure that it looks something like this inside.

Curiosity got the best of me, I got out of bed and peeled back the foil. A bit disappointed to find nothing underneath. Now I'm even more curious why there was a piece of foil under the inlay. Strange.

 

[BGinGA]

Need to crack open another one. Maybe one of the Mexican workers accidentally dropped his gum wrapper into the mold cavity on that last one....

 

[bentax1978]

Need to crack open another one. Maybe one of the Mexican workers accidentally dropped his gum wrapper into the mold cavity on that last one....

That was the first thing that crossed my mind, though I hate to kill perfectly good chips for no (good) reason.

I also wondered if in fact that foil wasn't suppose to be in there, if perhaps its inclusion contributed to the crack that split the chip in half (though the crack itself isn't near the foil indentation, so it seems unlikely).

 

[bentax1978]

That was the first thing that crossed my mind, though I hate to kill perfectly good chips for no (good) reason.

I do have 200 more on the way, due to arrive on Wednesday. We can always hope one or two of them break during shipping so we have something to look out (without actively killing a chip).

 

[BGinGA]

Okay, rechecked the chips for microdots:

beige $500 - microdot above the artwork
purple $500 - microdot inside the triangle
gray/yellow $100 - microdot inside the triangle
black/yellow $100 - microdot inside the triangle
gray 818 $100 - no microdot

Didn't check any of the $1000, $25, $5, or $1 denominations.

 

[BGinGA]

I may need to pick up a couple of red brick racks once you figure out that you have too many.

 

[bentax1978]

I may need to pick up a couple of red brick racks once you figure out that you have too many.

You can never have too many $5 chips (which is what they are slated to become). Now, if I end up not going through with my relabel project, then they'll be plenty of red brick racks for sale.

For what it's worth, below is a picture of the chips I am planning to use.

 

[Gear]

That is going to be a sweet set!

Viewers please note, the sample labels are deliberately cut to a small diameter (7/8") to make sure they will fit on the face of basically any chip that can take a label. (The point of the samples is to demonstrate thickness and feel, not diameter.)

 

[catalyzeme]

I need me some macro lens...

I used a Raynox DCR-250 Super Macro Snap-On Lens on regular telephoto for images like the one below. I don't even own a tripod though so this was handheld, 1/60 s (with shake reduction). Probably would be considerably clearer if I held the camera steady while focusing and taking the picture, but pretty good for a handheld shot I think. Super cheap, $75 for the Raynox and I have been very happy with it.