Let me preface this by saying, you know I love ya brother!

"1 -- If I have a Paul-Son or Chipco chip from a live casino and accidentally break it, then glue it back together, is it a "counterfeit"? If the chip gets heat-warped and I flatten it, does that make it a "counterfeit". In either case, am I breaking some law by taking it to the casino and turning it in (or using it in a game)?"

Nope. Your would be repairing damage done after the chip came into your possession.

"2 -- If I have a Bud Jones coin inlay chip from a live casino and one or both of the inlays pop out, is it a "counterfeit" if I glue the inlay(s) back in? Am I breaking some law by taking it to the casino and redeeming it?"

See #1.

"3 -- In either of the foregoing cases, if I can repair the chip in such a way that it cannot be seen that it was damaged, am I doing something wrong if I sell it to another collector, telling that collector, "It was broken. I fixed it." And explain the circumstances. Is this a violation of our club's code of ethics?"

See #1 again, but you are starting to dig a hole here.

"4 -- Let's say I picked up a current brass core from a Nevada casino (don't think there are any anymore, but suppose I did this when they were available). I take the chip home and as an experiment, melt off part of the plastic (just so I can see the core). Then I take some new plastic and melt it into the spot I damaged. Is this a "counterfeit"? If I then took it to the casino and turned it in, would I be committing some kind of fraud?"

If it was a current chip, I don't think the casino would refuse your presenting it at the cage for redemption, so why would you try to repair it? Improving its condition for the collecting community could easily viewed in a different light.

"5 -- Let's say during my experiment in #4, I'm a screw up and accidentally melt off all of the plastic. If I then replace all of it, is that a "counterfeit"? If I take it back to the casino, am I doing something wrong?"

If you did it once, there wouldn't be much of a need for such a question. If you did it more than once, or specifically for a group of one type of chips, intent and motive becomes a strong factor.

"6 -- One step further again in either 4 or 5. If I sell the chip to another collector and say, "I melted some (or all) of the plastic and replaced it," does that make this a "counterfeit"? Am I committing some kind of fraud? Is this a violation of the club's code of ethics? Is the answer to this question different if I don't get the color exactly right when I replace it? Or if I intentionally replace it with a different color, but still tell the person to whom I sold it what happened and what I did to fix it?"

I sell "the" chip with full disclosure to the buyer. "The" chip doesn't appear to be what we're talking about here, as there are many chips involved.

"7 -- And yet another step. After I sold to another collector, with complete disclosure, any of the chips described above, that collector sells it to a third person without my knowledge and without disclosing the damage and/or repair. Does that now make it a "counterfeit"? Has this person done something wrong? If so, does that mean I have now also done something wrong? Am I in violation of the club's code of ethics?"

There's the key to the difference between repairing A damaged chip and makng numbers of fake or counterfiet chips.

Given that you've already written that others involed in this aren't being cooperative or forthcoming with information, you have to rely on the word of the guy making the fakes to be telling you the truth concerning full disclosure about the nature of the chips in question.

Even if there are no further revelations about this practice and a complete discontinuence by the person making these chips, collecting brass core chips has been significantly soiled by his actions in my opinion.

Bob