... not agree on any standard of just how far a chip can be cleaned, restored or repaired; modefied or altered. Some collectors (from what I've always read here) could care less as to at what level a chip is taken as long as it strikes their fancy. In the case of an original ivory core being used (as I described w/ M-O-P above) and reworked with having a new face, who in the club/hobby can say it's not an original ivory chip. Is a chip "W" worked on no longer an original casino chip?

Bill has a valid point... So do you regarding full disclosure... but have we (club/hobby) ever set those standards as to where a real chip is no longer real? Granted, I'm mixing antique/vintage with modern, but at what level do we draw the line; if we draw any line. All we ask for is that the seller tell us as much as possible... and sometimes (as you and I have noted) the buyer does not care; they just like the finished product.

If pinned against the wall and someone asked me what I would call an original ivory chip that was rescrimshawed. I would call it an altered chip, but who is to say that what is now on the face of that chip was not there when the chip was new... no matter what method was used to put it there?

JB