Tom -- I don't know much about this myself, but now that you mention plastic, I do recall All Myers differentiating between clay chips and plastic (I actually had some of each material). As I recall, he said that the clay ones were blank color samples that had never been inlaid or hot-stamped, but that the plastic ones were souvenirs made for sale in the gift shop. So, if your chip is plastic, perhaps it was also a souvenir.

As for use of house molds for samples, I don't know. I suppose it's possible if these were made at the time they were first considering the use of a house mold, so that casino management could see what they look like. Any thoughts on this, Gene? (Now we'll see if he REALLY reads EVERY post!!) ----- jim o\-S