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The Lay chips were in the same lot as the 6 ST Joseph, MO hubs in "Illegal Of The Day" Missouri 11, last week. The seller of those chips, Lee Weaver, threw a pair of the Lay chips in the package I bought. He has some for sale. weaverlee@earthlink.net
They were taken in a raid by ST Jo police. I discounted them as UFC's and forgot about them. In that thread Ron Clewell asked about them. It dawned on me that Lay (ay not capital letters) was probably not initials but maybe someone's name. What the heck, why not give it a try. 
Both our friend and Ed Hertel jumped on the research. I had the 1st preliminary results in my in box within 24 hours of Ron's question on the BB.
I'm going to have to give these guys a raise in pay.
The New Stever.
What they found blows holes in another TGT ID for Stevers Social Club and plain mold 517 chips that we have had since 1999. As far as we can tell the name Stevers Social Club never existed. "The New Stever" did exist but was at 511 1/2 Edmond not 517 Edmond. Fear not! We have found what we believe is a new ID for those plain mold 517 chips.
Enter "Our Friend Of The Hobby."
The IOTD thread mentioned a diamond mold chip with “Lay” on it. Good chance it was made for Vernon Lay (1903-1965). Lay operated a billiard hall and recreation room at 511 1/2 Edmond in St. Joe called "The New Stever." The New Stever opened in the 1920’s and was still operating in the 1960’s.
Enter Ed Hertel:
The “517” were grouped with the “Stever” chips when I got them (a long time ago) and they were all supposedly from the “Stever Social Club” which sounds like a mistake (or a lame attempt to try to give a name to the Stever chip). I think our friend is right on with “The New Stever” name.
I was wondering what the heck a “Stever” was and found it. The original “The Stever” was Frank J. Stever. He and a guy named Frank G McDonald were proprietors of Rex Cigar Parlors (billiards and bowling) at the turn of the century. I didn’t go down into detail (as it might be old news), but here is a very brief timeline of what I saw at 511-1/2 Edmond:
Ad from 1921
1921 - “The Stever” was owned by Frank Stever.
1930’s – “New Stever” was owned by Fred Green & Edward Bonner
1940 – “New Stever” was owned by Vernon and Keith Lay
1950’s – “New Stever Recreation” – only Vernon Lay listed
Must have been a popular place to keep the name long after Frank Stever was gone.
My Notes: Both Ed and I got the Stever chip back in 1999 along with the plain mold 517 chips. That lot supposedly also came from a ST Jo policeman.
SO! What did we learn from all this?
1) The “Stever Social Club” was most likely not a real place.
2) The “Lay” and “Stever” diamond mold chips are probably from the “The New Stever” located at 511-1/2 Edmond, St. Joseph, Mo.
3) The “517” chips (below) are not Stever chips, but a couple doors down. Read on to find out where.
Now the new ID for the 517 plain molds.
The Silver Dollar.
My notes: Reminder: The 517 plain molds were 1st found in 1999 with the above STEVER chip. Another batch found a couple months ago in 2013 with the Lay chips. Both hoards came from ST Jo cops families.
Once we got the correct 511 1/2 Edmonds St address for The New Stever, what was at 517? The answer is "The Silver Dollar" and it makes sense to us. To be honest we can't be 100% because as our friend is about to ask below, "Do we have the right 517 as other streets could have the 517 address." Read down to the Edmonds Street directory. There are at least 12 addresses including vacant, cigar stores, and taverns that smells of gambling. It may not be 100% but it is better than the wrong ID we have listed them at for 14 years.
Re-enter our "Friend Of The Hobby."
Here’s some stuff on 517 Edmond—do we know for sure that 517 would be Edmond or perhaps a different street?
That being said, the businesses which operated at the address fit the profile of a place with gambling.
From the late 1940’s and into the 1950’s, 517 Edmond was the Silver Dollar Tavern. The Silver Dollar would have been there when the eBay seller of the chips says the chips were taken in a raid (1952ish). Prior to the Silver Dollar, 517 housed several different places including Watkins Tavern from the late 1930’s to late 1940’s and Merchants Lunch in the mid-1930’s.
1951:
map from 1949 (“pool hall 2nd” would be New Stever at 511 1/2):
some pics of the Silver Dollar from www.stjosephmemorylane.com :
1951—name on sign above: “George Muse”; partially obscured name is probably Dick Riemer.
My note: Brings back fond memories of the Mustang in Newport, KY when I owned it back in the 1970's. The only thing missing is the dance stage where the ladies did their thing, mostly topless.
Picture from 1969 courtesy of Roy Klein:
Once again the "Illegal Of The Day" team has gone a long way in giving the correct history to our chips. In the old days, back in the "1990's" we had to take the sellers word on ID's. Many of them made up ID's to sell chips. To be fair some were best guesses but even that was never divulged. Can we be wrong? Yes we can but I do not believe we are wrong on the ST Jo chips.
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