The Christy Jones (CJ) mold has always been a favorite of many chip collectors. The shiny hats seem to jump off the chip right at you. The CJ H&C has only been sold by two companies. Christy Jones in Kansas City pre 1965 and Paulson in Las Vegas after 1965. Some interesting history of the mold and the men that sold it follows.

What follows is notes I have accumulated over the years on the CJ mold and some recent research by our "Friend Of The Hobby" intermixed. The new research was done because HN Garrison's name turned up in the Burt records while researching the 1st Christy Jones mold chip order. The 1st question that popped into my mind was: Should it really be called the "Christy Garrison" mold? The answer to that was no. Christy Garrison Company broke up in 1951, 7 years prior to the 1st inlayed Christy Jones H&C mold chip.

William T. “Bill” Christy (1901-1986) started working in the dice manufacturing business in Kansas City when he was a young man. In the early 1930’s he worked for E. A. “Doc” Gould and Winner Supply Company. In the late 1930’s he started his own business called Christy Manufacturing Company. E. A. Gould, Winner Supply and Christy were all located next to each other in the 300 block of E 31st near McGee. Gould was the company which manufactured the guaranteed square dice in a can:

My note: This would have been in the heart of the illegal club business in Kansas City. We have many illegal chips from the McGee, Troost, and 31st streets area,

My note: Dice in a can?

Gould also owned Winner Supply Co.--where all the varieties of crooked dice were available.
Most of the old distributors sold crooked dice. Many had catalogs for their rigged gambling devices,

Some such as TR King sold dice to casinos both regular and crooked. They would also make the exact same dice for the scammers. Some of TR King's crooked dice are documented here in a story about Jason Lee. It has excerpts from a Saturday Evening Post article about ripping off a Monte Carlo casino in it.
http://www.marlowcasinochips.com/links/genetrimble/illegaloftheday/JasonLeeIL.pdf

In the early 1940’s Bernard B. “Bud” Jones (1915-2001) worked as a dice mechanic for Christy Manufacturing Co. There’s also evidence that Christy worked for the Jack Todd Company in the mid 1940’s.

Around 1948 Christy goes into business with Homer N. Garrison (1924-1995) under the name Christy-Garrison Manufacturing Company. Garrison was Christy’s step-son. Bud Jones was also associated with the enterprise. It was located at 1709 E. 31st St.

Around 1951 Garrison moves to Reno, NV and starts Reno Game Supply. This is the same HN Garrison that I wrote about in my Arrow Die mold article many years ago.
http://www.marlowcasinochips.com/links/genetrimble/arrowdie/arrowdie.htm

This is the first pre arrowdie mold history I've run across on Garrison. It was a surprise to me to find him in Kansas City with Bill Christy and Bud Jones. Garrison moved to Reno in 1951 then to Las Vegas in 1956 and started Precision Inc. I've seen Christy's name on Precision dice sales to the Flamingo in 1958. This means he was selling Precision dice while still the part owner on Christy Jones.

At two o’clock in the morning on May 25th 1952 Jeptha Harvey “Jack” Todd, owner of the Jack Todd Company ( Diamond mold), lost control of his car on a Kansas City street and crashed into a tree. Todd died as a result of injuries suffered in the crash, age 58.

Bill Christy and Bud Jones bought out the Jack Todd business after his death. I have seen no proof that they used the diamond mold but I highly suspect they did. Bud Jones told me he had the Horse Head Left mold made. I regret not asking more questions about the HHL mold. It just went over my head at the time.

Four months later Bill Christy and Bud Jones register their business with the State of Missouri:

This document gives us the dates Christy Jones was in business. September 24,1952 to January 1965. Bud Jones told me he left CJ in January 1965.

Bud Jones started The Nevada Dice Company in 1965 with the Nevada mold.
Bill Christy and Pat Sullivan took the shiny hat CJ mold in the breakup and not long after the breakup Paulson took over the mold. Per Jim Blanchard of the Burt Company Paulson sold more shiny hats than Christy Jones sold while in business for 13 years. The 1st Paulson H&C molds were sold in 1964. They sold both CJ H&C and regular H&C's at the same time.
.
Per Burt Company records:
1st CJ shiny hat H&C inlaid chip was:

$5 Mint Club Reno – Dec 15, 1958

It actually says in the Burt Ledger “(1st crest and seal order)”
Must mean they had sent blanks prior to that. Burt did not hot stamp blanks.
Many of the old manufactures called inlay chips "Crest And Seal's."

This story came from a Bud Jones's nephew that worked for Christy Jones in Kansas City and moved to Las Vegas with Bud Jones. He was the only BJ Salesman in the early days. Rip Poulos a Mississippi illegal operator confirmed the same story for my 3 part Biloxi illegals stories, posted here.
http://www.marlowcasinochips.com/links/genetrimble/genetrimble.htm

The main CJ office was in Kansas City. Bill Christy & Bud Jones decided to open a LV office. They hired Pat Sullivan to run it.

Background: Most of the old distributors Mason, BCW, HCE, etc made crooked dice and other rigged gambling devices and openly advertised them. Bud Jones would have nothing to do with crooked gambling devices.

Pat Sullivan with Bill Christy's knowledge started shipping hot dice out of LV office. CJ Las Vegas profits soared. I am sure Pat was doing well in other supplies also.

Bill & Bud each owned 50% of Christy Jones. Bill talked Bud into rewarding Sullivan by each one of them giving Pat 1% of CJ.

Most dice shipped to Mississippi were sent to Drug Stores as it was legal for them to buy them. The Hot dice were sent to the operators.

Pat shipped a package of hot dice for Rip Poulos at Gus Stevens Supper Club in Biloxi, MS, but he addressed it to Gus. Gus did not know Rip had the bad bones in the game. (this part of the story came from Rip himself) Gus did not open the package because the COD amount was way too high
for mere dice. He gave the mailman hell and sent it back. The FBI had been watching Rip for years.
They tracked the package home to Christy Jones, LV.

The FBI raided Christy Jones, LV office and Gus's Supper Club. Rip picked up his only jail time in 50 years of running games in Biloxi.

BTW, Rip hugged Jayne Mansfield goodbye after she appeared at Gus Stevens Supper Club and headed for the airport. Somewhere between Gus's and the airport, she lost her head.

Meanwhile Bud Jones was going ballistic in LV. Remember Sullivan's reward? 2% of Christy Jones. Bill & Pat now controlled CJ. Bud Jones was done with it.

My guess is Bill took the CJ H&C to Paul-Son with him after the CJ breakup in 1965.

Jim Blanchard explains why the CJ H&C had shiny hats:

I think the major difference between the C&J mold and the Paulson made hat & cane mold is in the manufacture. The C&J mold was made by machine cutting the hob. Exactly like the hob for a proof coin is made. This process would make a hat and cane look shiny without polishing. While I don’t rule out some polishing, I don’t think it’s the main difference. Paulson’s hat & cane molds all appear to be made with acid etched hobs. This is the way cheap tokens are made. A protective coating is placed on the metal where you want it to remain unchanged and the exposed part is eaten away in an acid bath. I have produced several hobs this way and they show an uneven almost sand blasted effect caused by the acid. That’s the effect I see in the hats of all Paulson chips.

FYI: a 20 cup mold made for the Burt Co. in 1960 cost $16,000. Make that into 2001 dollars and you can see these molds were top quality.

My note. I ordered 2 house molds made for the Palms in 2006, Playboy and Palms. I only ordered 4 cup molds as our orders were small at the time. If I would have ordered a 20 cup mold they would have cost $20,000 each. Not a big jump in price from 1960 but I guess new technology might have kept the cost closer.

Maybe this will help. A hob is a round roll of steel with a poker chip design cut into it. It is then hardened and pressed into a roll of soft steel making the reverse design called a cup. 20 cups put into 2 shoes (what holds the cups in place, one shoe top and one bottom) and you have a mold. Add some clay and your making chips.

Here is a summary of what I know about the molds and the records.

Arrowdie: HN Garrison opened Reno Game Supply in 1951 with the Arrowdie mold. I found Garrison alive but comatose in California while researching my Arrowdie article. I talked to his son who owned a business in Henderson, NV. He had no idea what happened to the records. Burt records indicate inlayed Arrowdies were delivered February 1, 1953 - December 22, 1967. The mold was returned to Fremont Casino as "NG" in 1967. There are no Burt records of blank Arrowdie's being shipped but I believe they were shipped beginning sometime in1951.

Christy Jones shiny hat: Christy Jones 1958-1965, Kansas City- Paulson 1965-?, Las Vegas. Unknown when the mold went "NG." Paulson moved their production to Mexico 1985. Paulson would have had the records obtained from Christy Jones. I believed they were destroyed in 2001 when GPI bought Paulson.

Diamond mold: Jack Todd, Kansas City. Feb 9, 1933-May 25th 1952. Christy Jones 1952-1965. The records went to Paulson in 1965. I actually saw the Jack Todd records in the Paulson warehouse in the late 1990's. Christy Jones records may have been with them. I begged for copies or at least access to them. No deal! After GPI took over in 2001, I once again asked for them. GPI took warehouse space from 3 locations to 1. The records were destroyed per GPI.