It was suggested by someone on this board a while back that long cane/short cane was not a legitimate variation. It did not deserve separate entries in TCR.

I do not know all the history of these molds. The long cane variety is virtually identical to the Christy & Jones, except the Paul-Son chips do not exhibit the "shiny" hats. I suspect the shine in the impressions was a function of the clay composition and/or the manufacturing technique, and not necessarity due to the mold itself. I don't know if Christy took the actual molds with him when he went to Paul-Son, or if they reproduced the molds.

Clearly new molds were made later that are what we now call short canes. I imagine it is possible that at some time some chip orders were produced using both mold designs. I don't think we know whether this actually occurred or not. These Fitzgeralds chips also have inlay differences, indicating they were two different orders.

But, even if one order is filled using two molds, is it not two variations? If Bud Jones makes a chip as diecards and diesuits, is that not two different chips? I seem to recall Paul-Son making both hat&cane and house mold $5 chips that were on the tables when Mandalay Bay opened. Were those not two different variations, even if they were shipped to the casino intermixed in the same boxes?

If you don't collect variations, fine. I think they deserve to be documented and cataloged. Right, Allan? Allan?