Now that the new, second edition of "Illegal Gambling Clubs of Toledo; the Chips, the Dice, the Places and Faces" has been published and available, I'm pleased to start sharing a bit of the new information on the chipboard. The first of the tidbits to share is the orange flower mold chip "SJB."

It has been known in the vintage casino chip collecting hobby for quite some time that the “SJB” flower mold chip shown below was shipped to Toledo, Ohio. However, it was not previously known exactly who ordered the chips or to what address the order was shipped. That is…. until now.

The mystery has finally been solved. The chips were ordered and owned by Sam “Spuds” Besase (“SJB” = Samuel Joseph Besase). This has been confirmed by Sam Besase himself, who informed me in 2013 that these were used for his Barbut game that he ran at various locations including the Sports Recreation Center. Note; Barbut is a dice game similar to craps.

“SJB” chip used by Sam Besase, manufactured post-1940