Here's the story, John, some of which other posters have provided.

Bill Borland bought rights to the Nevada mold from Bud Jones. He had Atlantic Standard Molding make these chips for him to commemorate the classic, closed Las Vegas casinos, and they were sold by Borland as commemoratives, not as authentic casino chips. Borland didn't make them himself - the chips he made were all hotstamps. He didn't have the technology or equipment to make inlaid chips.

They're not imitations, in that no El Rancho Vegas chip ever looked like one of these. They are commemoratives, a different matter. No chip collector would be fooled into believing that these were casino issues: not with the closing date on the inlay!

To my knowledge, Borland never misrepresented these as casino issues, although many others (some innocently, some not) since then have done so. They appear every once in a while with the legend "$5000 chip from the famous El Rancho Vegas," for example. The chips are not "from" El Rancho Vegas. In fact, "Casino Player" magazine used these, as well as the sister chips commemorating the Dunes, Castaways, Jolly Trolley, etc., as promotional items, and used that pitch. Along with "who knows what these will be worth in years to come!" Bull#####! They'll be worth the same two bucks they are now!

In fact, I wrote to "Casino Player" and explained the origin of the chips and their true nature, on two separate occasions. I believe Archie did too. The third time they ran the same promotion without changing the copy, I canceled my subscription and I have not re-subscribed. I made sure they knew why. I doubt that it mattered to them.

These chips have a place in some collections, certainly. Their danger is that there are new or incipient collectors who buy these things at inflated prices, thinking that they've got something valuable, only to find out that they've been swindled. That does not give our hobby a good image.

-=Michael the Chipper=-