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() (July 2006)
Varieties/Variations
What constitutes a variety? A thicker or thinner font is a variation, but is it a “variety”? Does a different color hot stamp or denomination qualify as a variety, a different date, a different spelling? Or does it require a new color chip, or different mold, to qualify as a “recognized variety”?
These are questions that I am not qualified to answer. I can only post scans of all the chips that I can find, describing the differences that I see, and leave it to each collector to decide what is a collectible variety.
Half the battle when deciding what to collect, or knowing where you are in your collecting effort, is knowing what is available. My goal is to provide that information and make this list a useful asset to anyone considering collecting, or already collecting A&NZ casino chips.
There are many A&NZ chip types with two or three variations. I am not recommending or encouraging anyone to collect ALL varieties (if you even consider them varieties). I am only presenting the information that I have, so that A&NZ collectors will have all the available knowledge when deciding what they want to collect.
If you are a more casual collector, who only wants a representative chip 'of type', then any one of the two or three available variations will do for you. If you are a 'serious' collector, or a completeness fanatic, then all the esoteric variations documented in the A&NZ list will be of great help to you.
There are several Australian chips that are available with either bold of fine print. These are minor differences, easily overlooked if you are not aware they exist. There are chips with hot stamps in different colors. This difference is very obvious if you have the two chips side by side. But if you have only one chip, you might not be aware the other exists. These are all illustrated and numbered in the list.
The gold and silver metallic chips issued by some Australian casinos have year dates on them. Are these collectible 'varieties'? Do you want to collect all years, or are you satisfied with one chip 'of type'? I have given these only one number per type, but with a date suffix. AU WRE 1s 1997, AU LAU 2s 1988.
UV varieties: I do not own a black light. I have never seen a chip illuminated with UV. I do not collect UV varieties. But, since the information was presented to me, I have included it in the list for the benefit of those who might find it useful. If I should receive any more information regarding UV varieties, I will add that to the list, also.
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