Does anyone know anything about any of these chips?
I bought the chips on the right about ten years ago on Ebay. The seller sold a couple of sets and claimed that they were from a Northern California card room called the Hub Club. I think around that time someone asked on The Chip Board if anyone could ID them, and no one had any information about them. (I can't find that old Chip Board post because searching with the word "hub" and "club" brings up too many posts.) I put them in my UFC pile and didn't think about them further.
About a year ago, I found the chip on the left on Ebay. The seller was selling a large group of individual chips found in New Orleans. About half of the chips were local to Louisiana, and half were from other locations across the country. This one chip caught my eye as it has essentially the same mechanical design as the "Hub Club" chip. Is there a connection between these chips?
The hotstamp design does definitely look like a a wagon wheel hub. So they do seem to be linked to establishments with Hub in the name, although they may be completely different establishments. Was Hub Club/Tavern/Room a common name for a gambling joint?
What is strange in particular about the chips on the right is that the hub mold around the edge appears to be hot stamped in gold. Has anyone ever seen a hub mold chip in which the hub mold itself was gold? I am not even sure how this type of hot stamping was done. As far as I understand, the Burt Co. during this time (1930s-1950s) typically made the blank chips and shipped them to the distributor who hot stamped on his own equipment. How would the distributor even get the gold foil in the previously created chip mold? Why would he even want to do that? Was this an attempt to further emphasize the Hub name in the establishment, as the mold design does look similar to wagon wheel hub holes.?
Any insights into these mysteries would be welcome?
Thanks,
Jeff
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