That's how I feel about my website. I want to provide as much information as possible. You decide what you want to collect. As a collector, I've decided I'm an obsessive compulsive variation nut. What the variation nut always needs to be careful of are chips that differ only due to the aging process. On a sample of two or three used chips, a minor variation in clay color, inlay colors, hot stamp colors, etc., needs to be looked at very critically. Gold hot stamps can turn silver with use. Light blue chips will darken due to finger oils. But if you have a reasonable quantity of chips and they can easily be sorted into two piles by clay color or some other attribute, with none in the middle, I'd say you have a variation.

It's different when I know a new chip has been issued. A couple of years ago Lakeside Inn at Lake Tahoe replaced their entire rack. The new chips are totally indistinguishable from the 1985 issue. I certainly can't expect the guide authors to give it a new number, but I still feel it's important to document this event. I have both in my collection.

Take a look at the two following Western Village chips.

The first chip was issued in 1987, the second chip was issued in 2004. When I started collecting in 1998 the chips on the table were all in "very worn" condition. How many chips walked in 1987 in mint condition? I'll warrant not very many. I found one, and was very pleased with myself . (If you don't know, in addition to being a variation nut I'm also a condition freak.) Then they replace the rack and now hundreds of people have an example in mint condition. It's not the same chip! The brown is lighter on the newer chip and slightly blurry, and the surface texture is quite different. These differences could easily be chalked up to age if all I had was a worn sample of the first issue. But I was there when they changed the rack. I know!

I don't expect very many people to care. That's fine. I care. The "heart" of my collection is a $1, $5, $25 and $100 from each casino in Northwest Nevada that was open when I moved here in 1998. (It was on display at the convention this year.) Each chip is representative of an issue that was in play in 1998. If all I had was a worn sample of the 1987 chip, I simply couldn't use the new issue to upgrade condition. That would be cheating. Again, you don't have to care. It's what I do. It's who I am. Happily, I know I'm not alone. I'm just very, very rare!!!