Here's what I have in a file. It includes my original post with additional information I received later. I am taking out the email addresses (they are probably not active anymore anyway):

Since it’s a little slow on the board today, I thought it might be a good time to write up a chip mystery I have been investigating. It all began when I strayed from my normal collecting areas…

In November of this year, in response to a great offer on the Chip Board, I purchased an obsolete chip from Curacao, an island neighbor to Aruba, and another island in the Dutch Antilles (yes, a start down a new slippery slope). The chip was a $5 hot stamped chip on the scroll mold from the long gone Curacao Hilton. Shortly before receiving the chip, I looked it up in Ralph Pollack’s Guide to the chips of the Caribbean and discovered that the chip was not listed. A corresponding hot stamped $1 chip was listed, but was very rare.

Unlike the chip in the guide, which was not in good shape, the chip that arrived was in fantastic condition. There was some wear in the hot stamp, but the chip looked perfect. When I began to line up the chip for a scan, I noticed some writing etched in the chip. I scanned the chip and scoured the picture to decipher the writing on the chip. What I discovered was a stamp in the chip (with no foil), seemingly underneath the hot stamp for the Curacao Hilton. Upon some examination, I determined that the writing on top said, “The Village” and the writing on the bottom said, “Chelsea.” I noticed that the “Village” hot stamp aligned almost perfectly with the inserts.

Being a collector of New York underground club chips, I immediately wondered if I had stumbled upon a chip that connected two of my chip collecting areas, Caribbean and New York. The Village could refer to Greenwich Village, just South of Chelsea in Manhattan. I also wondered if the foil could have been removed from the Village chip and a false Curacao Hilton stamp placed on top to fool collectors. Remember that this chip was not even included in the Pollack Guide. Not sure how to react, I contacted three Caribbean chip collectors, including Ralph Pollack, and the seller, to get their opinions. The seller had several other $5 Curacao Hilton chips and informed me that I had the only one with additional stamping on the chip. None of the collectors told me they believed this to be a counterfeit chip, and Ralph believed that it was genuine. Based upon the limited information I gave him, he suggested that I may be on the right track that it was also a chip used in a New York club. Charles Kaplan focused on the scroll mold, commonly used in Europe, and thought the chip might have been recycled by or from an English casino.

So, now I had a mystery. What was the other stamp from? Could I verify it? I began by researching the chip’s age. According to Ralph Pollack’s book, the Curacao Hilton was open from 1967 to 1971. He informed me in an e-mail, though, that the chip could have been used from the 1970s to 1980s.

I did a number of internet searches for mention of a club in New York called, “The Village,” but came up empty.

I re-scanned the chip at a higher resolution so I could look at a larger image, and I began to see faint images of a stamp in the center of the chip, perhaps partially obscured by the “CH” stamp. At first, I thought I could make out a 25 in the center. When I began to trace the “2,” however, I quickly noticed it was a “₤,” the British pound sign. The right digit, although partial, is consistent with the number, “5.”

This changed my whole investigation! Now, I was looking for a casino in England. Charles Kaplan’s insight based upon the scroll mold appeared to be right!

I started my search in four ways. I did internet search after internet search for an English casino called The Village in the Chelsea district of London, I visited Jason Skinner’s web-site on the casinos of England, I directly e-mailed all of the English participants of Greg Susong’s great internet Chip Board for any information they might have and I asked for information about The Village casino in Chelsea on the Chip Board.

I found an entry for the Village Club in Sloane Square, London, on Jason’s site!! Jason confirmed that Sloane Square is, in fact, in the Chelsea district of London. Fantastic. The site did not list any chips, though, and Jason had no additional information about the casino.

David Spragg confirmed that Scroll mold chips were common in English casinos in the 1970s and 1980s. John Benedict informed me that The Gaming Table listed a casino called The Village in London which closed in 1982.

Through Gene Trimble, Robert Eisenstadt and David Spragg, I learned that Burt Co. manufactured Scroll mold chips at the time these chips were probably made, but that Burt Co. did not hot stamp chips. Instead, they sold the blanks to other manufacturers, who hot stamped them on their own. The English distributor for Burt Co. in the 1970s to 1980s was a company called Jay Myers Co., which is no longer in business. As the distributor, Jay Myers Co. may have done the hot stamping.

I checked on Robert Eisenstadt’s valuable chip mold pages on his web-site to see if he had any useful information for me about the scroll mold. On there, I learned about a casino equipment company called Hispania Casino Equipment. According to David Spragg, Hispania purchased the scroll mold in 1984. They continue to sell chips on that mold today {2021 Update note: I do not believe they still do} (on a side note, they also make plain mold chips that look on their web-site just like antique die cut chips).

[Hispania may just sell and Blanchard has the mold – check on this]

I tried to find references to the Jay Myers Co. on the internet, but got nowhere. Robert Eisenstadt wrote me that another company, London Casino Supplies, had bought out Jay Myers Co. I have yet to find their e-mail address so I can contact them. John did give me their street address, but I have yet to write them.

After extensively searching the world wide web for The Village, I found a report by a British agency investigating whether a merger of the owner of the Village Club, Trident Television PLC, with two other gaming companies - Grand Metropolitan PLC and Pleasurama - would create a monopoly. Apparently, Trident bought the Village Club in October 1982, along with the Connoisseur and managed its casinos under its subsidiary company, Trident Casinos Ltd. According to Wikipedia, Trident merged into Grand Metropolitan sometime in 1982.

The only other useful reference I found was an old newspaper article. On November 13, 1983, New York Times writer Walter Goodman wrote an article about London casinos. His primary casino, which served as his reference point, was the “Chelsea Village Casino Club.” In the article, one “local” described the Village Club as “a noddy little club.” The writer described the club as follows

[quote]”four tables and the spirit of a very low-key neighborhood pub. There I was able to play blackjack for $4.50 a hand and roulette for 75 cents a spin.”[/quote]

Trying to find other avenues for information, I came across the UK Gambling Commission, formerly called The Gaming Board of Great Britain. Unfortunately, they don’t keep records on closed casinos. Instead, they sent me to a website (www.gamingfloor.com) where I could find information about the gaming industry. I found a section on associations and contacted several. First, I wrote the British Casino Association (BCA), but they merely responded that they could not help with chips (my request for information, of course, was much broader). Next, I wrote the British Amusement and Catering Trades Association (BACTA). As far as I know, I received no response. Finally, I contacted the Casinos Operators Association (C.O.A. UK). In a friendly e-mail, they informed me that they passed my information on to the COA UK members who could respond to me directly. Soon thereafter, I received an e-mail from an individual who “worked at the Casanova Club in Mayfair in 1973/1974.” She wrote that “Most of the London Casinos then used John Huxley & Sons for their chips. They are now called TCSJOHNHUXLEY. I am sure someone there may be able to help you.” Although the author listed herself as “Club Secretary,” I don’t know which club she represents.

So, I then proceeded to research John Huxley & Sons and TCS John Huxley. I managed to track down an e-mail address for TCS John Huxley, but my message was returned as undeliverable.

The upshot is that, although it has been a lot of fun, I still don’t know where the second stamp is from. If anyone can provide me with any information to help me track down the origins of this chip, I would really appreciate it!

I would really like to thank the following for all of the help they have given me so far: John Benedict, Jim Blanchard, Robert Eisenstadt, Scott Harmon, Charles Kaplan, Peter Nathan, Ralph Pollack, Terry Schaffer, Jason Skinner, Gene Trimble, Carol-Ann Scott of the Gambling Commission, Tracy Damestani (BCA), Linda Bowes (COA) and Anne-Marie Mollins (organization unknown). If I have inadvertently left anyone out, I apologize, but your contributions have all been highly appreciated.

I hope you enjoyed this story of investigation and intrigue.

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Jim Blanchard (ASM): The chip in question was made by the Burt company for Jack Myers (Jay Myers). There were three scroll molds, two 39mm and one 43mm, made by the Burt company. Later when Jack was trying to save money by having some chips made by a Spanish company, he asked that one of his 39mm molds be sent to them. He later sold his company to Bud Jones who then sold it to the Huxley Company. The Spanish company must have bought the scroll mold from Jack after he retired. The scroll molds, now owned by the Huxley Company, remained at ASM (formally the Burt company). When the Huxley Company was sold, the owner Jeffrey Lindsey, retained the two scroll mold. In 2006 these two molds were shipped to Blue Chip at the request of Jeffrey Lindsey.

David Spragg: you may still wish to contact Jeffrey Lindsay in his new role as President of the UK Casino History project. You should be able to get him at {address removed}. He may be interested in your research.

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From: John Galajsza
Sent: 02 January 2007 17:19
To: Me {address removed}
Subject: RE: TCSJOHNHUXLEY Website Contact Form Submitted

Mr Siskin,

John Huxley's did supply gaming equipment to the Village casino off Sloane square but we have no records of chips being supplied.

When the Village casino re opened in the 80's the license was transferred by Trident Group to what is now The Gloucester Sporting Club in Kensington and would have probably destroyed any old chips from the Village.

The only information I am able to provide is from my own vague recollections at the time, the Village did re open early 80's, I do recall it was a surprise the license had laid dormant since the 70's, it was only a very small 2 table Restaurant/Casino.

The licensed was purchase by the Trident group and transferred to it's new location which opened in 1985.

The 2 Chip companies you mentioned may well have supplied the original Village chips but both No longer exist.

The Burt Company was acquired by Chipco International. {Owned by some Chip Dealer now.}

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I still have the newspaper article and a document memorializing the sale in 1985. Hope you enjoyed this.

Michael Siskin