Rich...the chips were ordered by Joe Samut Jr to commemorate the birth of his Son Dennis. (1940’s) I heard this straight from Dennis himself. According to Dennis...They were giving out as souvenirs...like they were cigars. He didn’t believe they were ever used for gaming...even though some have cigarettes burns. He thought that people would put them on top of there chips so others would be able to pilfer any while they were distracted. And when they were smoking...they would just put the cigarette on top. Those were his explanation.
I don’t have a clue of why a 4 would be on the back of one of the chips...my only guess...it was done in production...as some sort of a sample?
White seems to be the toughest color. They are Red..Blue...Yellow...White. I have no idea how many were ordered or if the story is 100% true. Sometimes stories are passed down from elders that are in turn have added inflatable info. ...you know...how Mom walked uphill in the snow to school (both ways...school and back home)... but Mom always lived in Sunny California....those type of stories.
Dennis passed away last February from pancreatic cancer. I had talked with him many times while gathering chips for the Artichoke Joe’s history board. I gathered about 40% of those chips from other collectors. Many from my own collection. He was good to me. The entire Artichoke Joe’s team was.