... to appear in the March 5th issue:

By Summer Douglass
COIN WORLD Staff

Independent Coin Grading Service's December decision to begin grading and encapsulating casino chips has provoked outrage in many casino chip collectors who view the new service option as an affront to the defining characteristics of their hobby.

So vehement are the anti-slabbers, that more than 250 chip enthusiasts with online access have signed a petition in which they pledge to boycott chip grading and dealers associated with it.
The pledge reads: "I will not buy any slabbed chip. I will not have any slabbed chip in my collection. I will not buy any chip from any dealer who sells slabbed chips. I will not buy any chip from any dealer who grades chips for a slabbing service. I will not do business of any kind with any dealer who participates in any way in the slabbing of chips."

A major problem in this situation is that there has never been an official grading standard for casino chips.

Chips may be cleaned, and anti-slabbers argue that "damage" such as grime, dirt and cigarette burns add to the chip's character and value instead of detracting from it.

James Taylor, ICG vice president of customer satisfaction, told Coin World ICG is grading casino chips on a 70-point scale similar to the one used for coin grading.

Anti-slabbers also believe that third-party-graded chips will swell in price, with large disparities in dollars between chips with one or two points separating them in grade.

"Real die-hard collectors want to be able to find Mint State chips at the same prices as [Extremely Fine]," Las Vegas, Nev., slabbed casino chip dealer Mark Scott said.

Anti-slabbers also argue that grading is merely subjective, whereas traditional casino chip procedure has been more objective.

Scott disputed this claim, saying, "It's the same as when coins were [beginning to be] slabbed, people are scared that they'll get caught over-grading."

Taylor said that ICG began grading casino chips because chip dealers and collectors had asked the company to do it.

ICG sees grading the chips as a low-cost opportunity to provide a service.

"It's a good business move for us," Taylor said.
ICG grades casino chips for $15 each with a 15-business day turnaround time and for $10 each with a 21-business day turnaround time.

Casino chip dealer Henry Garrett agreed that selling encapsulated casino chips is simply good business. "I'm selling them because people have asked for them," he said. Garrett said that the brouhaha surrounding grading casino chips has actually succeeded in bringing more people to his table to see what the fuss was about.

"I think because of the controversy several people came to my table who [normally] wouldn't have," he said. "I ended up with a better sale [than expected]."

Casino chip collector and Florida United Numismatists President Mark Lighterman was neutral about slabbing. "I see nothing wrong with it, but I don't know if I would do it for my own collection," he said.

Archie Black, one of the most vocal of the anti-slabbers, hopes to inform casino chip collectors who do not go online about the anti-slabbing viewpoint in an article that will be published in an upcoming Casino Chip and Gaming Token Collectors Club newsletter.

While this article may serve to strengthen the anti-slabbers' fight, Lighterman sees a trend toward slabbing as inevitable. "It's going to come whether anyone wants it or not - let the chips fall where they may," he said.

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