I’ve never been into commemoratives, or really much of any current chips, so I’m not that familiar with the process that goes into making them. While digging thought the piles of paperwork for artwork approvals, I noticed a few for the same chips and was able to put a little timeline together.

Most of them had little sticky notes from Gene telling whether they were final, or if something needed to be done. The below Playmate chips were ordered for the Palms in 2002 and shows Gene’s process (I’ll show a closeup of the changes at the bottom)…

First design…

The next page has some tweaks like name dated…

Gene put a note on the page “NOT FINAL. Nicole name spelled wrong.”

Finally, the artwork is correct and Gene writes “FINAL”.

The evolution of the chips can be seen here…

First round…

Names added and picture brightened a little…

Anna Nicole Smith’s name erroneously written as “Nichole” (good catch Gene!)

Finished chip, ready for manufacture…