Geez; I didn't think this topic would cause such a heated response (almost as vehement as "roulette harvesting").

I'm a little bit reluctant to jump in here at the tail-end for fear of alienating some of my "friends" on this issue. Both Jim and Andy have valid arguments. I can side with either of them on specific points ... although I tend to lean towards Andy's overall position. Of course, as an Atlantic City collector, I'm looking at it from a different perspective than Andy and Jim are.

In Nevada, casinos routinely post newpaper notices that after such a date, specific chips will not be honored for redemption. This does not happen in Atlantic City ... or perhaps in other parts of the country.

I too think that I know (in my mind) what "obsolete" means (to me). Jim may be referring to ebay sellers who over use the term obsolete as they do the word "rare". As a cataloger, I use the term "obsolete" throughout my A.C. catalog and NO ONE has ever raised a question about my application of the word over the past several years.

Thumbing through the current issue of Black's Catalog I note that I have used the term "obsolete" for the following A.C. chips; even though many of them will still be accepted at the cage.... but they would be removed from the possibility of entering the flow of fills back out to the floor.... much like a bank would remove an old bill from getting back out into circulation. (For the purposes of the newbie... A.C. chips CAN NOT be purchased at the casino cage, but can only be purchased at the gaming tables.)

"Obsolete" A.C. chips:

Boardwalk Regency
Trump's Castle
Harah's at Trump Plaza
Hilton (original rainbow chips)

I could probably add a few more casino names to this list, such as Playboy, Atlantis, Golden Nugget, Bally's Grand, Brighton, etc.

Perhaps some of the thinking on the part of some individuals over the term "obsolete" has to do with specific chips, rather than entire casinos?

Whatever the case, after reading and re-reading this thread, I don't think that the word "obsolete" warrants deletion from the chip glossary of terms. It seems to me that one very influential person in the U.S. Government not too long ago had trouble with defining the word "is".