Each time we discuss this, more of the puzzle pieces get found.

Since I now know the dies were the real thing and the people who made them DO say they did. There's some sort of conflict in the versions.

I haven't carved my conjecture in stone yet. But once I was convinced that late at night BB would fire up the machine, grab some blanks and watch TV, sip a few and press out some chips.

Then I read Doug's version and it got me thinking that they might have been sweepers which came with the molds. His article says that he interviewed former workers and they said they didn't make them.

Now I'm reading that someone says they did make them.

OK I swing the other way again.

I don't believe these chips were at any time real casino chips, made for play in a real casino. I could believe that they were sales samples, leftovers or sweepers.

I could also believe they were fakes, made to sell in the store. The only complication left is why someone would make cheap fakes and sell them cheap? If he was going to make fakes for profit, wouldn't it have made more sense to make copies of real chips?

As always, it's interesting, a mystery and educational.