~~~ in the 1880's and 1890's.

There are some collections witn over 50 such newspaper articles and one San Francisco family has sketches published in newspapers back East from the 1860's and 1870's backed up with in-house artwork with the same exact operators' monograms made in France. Some online articles report that it was mostly French organized gambling rooms in those swanky San Francisco hotels which is probably the reason for the MOP chips and plaques found in California, though with very little backup proof that I know of. I am always interested in those MOP plaques found in California -- especially witn the $ sings.

ChipGuide images