They were used as "drink tokens". Here is why/how they were used:

“Mark’s Place” was a jazz joint/nightclub/dance club in the 1970’s. He decided the bar itself would be a "service bar" only - no seats at the bar and no cash passing from a customer to the bartender. That’s where the chips come in. Mark described it as basically “Each waitress was their own cash register.” Let’s say you enter “Mark’s”, sit down and order a beer. The waitress takes the order, accepts the cash, makes change, accepts tips, etc. She then walks up to the service bar and hands the bartender a chip (or chips) that equal the amount of the drink order. The bartender makes the drinks and puts the chips received in a designated pile for each individual waitress. At the end of the night, each waitress is responsible to “pay” for the chips in her pile. Anything extra in her stash are tips.

At "Mark's Place"

white chip = 75¢
black chip = $1.25
red chip = $2.50
black chip = $5

The white and the black chips are a little more beat up than the others, but the stamps are good on all.

I will sell 100 of these chips for $58 shipped (USPS Priority Mail) within the U.S. For the first few buyers, I can ship in one of the boxes the chips have been sitting in since the 1970s. You can pick out the breakdown of the 100 chips - 25 of each, 100 red, etc. I don't have a lot of the white, so keep that in mind.

Email me if interested.