The Rise And Fall of Clay Poker Chips
Movies have often portrayed glamorous poker games on the old steamships, the clay poker chips clinking on the table as players faced each other down, the sound of river water rippling in the background. But in fact, the casino poker chips as we know them today, really only developed late in the 19th century. So the early steamboat games, at least, were played with very different types of items, like gold nuggets or random coins, and there was no consistency at all. It wasn’t until the 1870s or 1880s that the standardized clay chip was introduced into the game of poker.
Some of the early chips were made of bone, wood or even ivory, but clay chips soon began to dominate the game. They were created with metal molds in which the clay was placed and put under high pressure, to take on the desired shape. However, users discovered early on that chips made entirely of clay tended to be brittle and could break easily. So eventually the manufacturers added ceramic materials to the clay, to make the mixture stronger and more durable. Since that time, all poker chip sets have really been made of this clay-ceramic composite.
Once the type of chip was standardized, casinos further developed clay poker chips to prevent forms of cheating. In the beginning, they did this partly using the shapes of the molds, and partly by means of the clay-ceramic formula used. Each casino developed a proprietary clay formula, so their chips could not be used (and cashed) at another casino. Molds were created for the same purpose, adding specialized indentations, engravings, spots and so on into the very shape of the chip itself, to make it easily distinguishable from others. Casino poker chips became completely individualized.
However, the development of chips hasn’t stopped with the clay poker chips; they now have several competitors, and as always, fraud and security are the primary reasons. For example, many casinos have begun to use chips with a metal core overlain by a tough resin material. These are lighter than the original chips, but there are other differences as well, such as the fact that the newer chips might also carry markings that are only visible in ultraviolet light. From the clay chips first introduced on the steamboats to the new generation of casino chip that’s beginning to emerge, the poker chip has had a long and interesting history.
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