I originally assumed that the Circles mold dated back to the USPC Co., but I now believe that it was manufactured solely by the Burt company between 1946 and around the mid-1950s, probably no later than 1958.

The few chips that I have been able to somewhat confidently date, go back no earlier than 1946. The Flamingo (LV, NV) opened on 12/26/1946. The Villa Venice opened in 1949.

The Burt Co. inlaid chip records begin in late 1954, and there is no record of the mold being used for inlaid chips post-1954. A 1965 Burt inventory that I have seen, however, does refer to the mold as being in the company’s possession.

The biggest user of the mold was perhaps the Salt Lake Card Co. (Salt Lake City, UT), which was open from 1949 to 1958, when its owner Edward A. Stroud died suddenly of a stroke at age 53. Stroud specialized in hot stamping inside of the large circle edge mold gap. He may have done this to protect the chips hot stamped by his company from being counterfeited by someone else.

Stroud maybe needed to do this because I believe that the Small Circles mold was likely an open mold, available to other gambling supply distributors. Frank Walters was a dice maker most active in the early 1950s. He was arrested in Detroit for making crooked dice in 1953 and again 1956. The T. K. Specialty Co. is well known.

Why use of the mold was discontinued, I do not know.