Luke Rapley brought this to my attention and I wanted to add what I know about the B-Diamond mold chips. If you look at the scan, 3 different chips are shown. The first shows a common front-side hot-stamp "BPOE 92" (which is the Seattle Elks club, BTW) in the, I believe, older B-Diamond mold style. The "Bs" in the mold are slightly larger, and they go further out toward the edge of the chip. Compare the other two, which are of the newer mold style. (Those are 2 different varieties themselves, one with a "$" and one without, but that's a different story!) I searched through the several B-Diamond mold chips I own and found only a handful in the older, larger B style. They came from clubs that were open in the 60s and 70s, so I believe this mold was shelved and the newer, smaller B style was used in the 80s and 90s. I also notice that the older style chips seem to "chip" (no pun intended) more at the edges, possibly from the mold being pressed closer to the edge, possibly from a different clay mixture used in making up the chips (which also seems to change as the years passed). I've never seen the records, so this is all conjecture, but I believe these styles can accurately be used to date the chips. Interesting stuff! steve g
|