It has been several years since a new "Type" of Cuban chip has been found. Different colors or denominations of already established chips still show up every so often, but new chips-Not in years!!

The previous large number of collectors of Cuban chips and the high prices they demanded made every body earning $20/month or less in Cuba (that is almost all Cubans) go hunting for chips and memorabilia. So, eventually the island became dry; to the point that USA dealers are presently buying cheap Cuban chips in the USA to sell them back to the Islanders who then sell them to tourists in Cuba.

So, the obvious next step was to make chips, new ones, pretty ones, cheap, expensive. Fortunately, is not that difficult to diagnose a fake chip, many ways: from the fact that you can barely find old materials, colors, etc, to been able to see small new glue in very high definition scans. And, basically most Cuban chips are already classified. The problem is that those who buy them, normally do not even suspect, so...they do not look.

The small group of large Cuban collectors, helped by many of you, have been able to stop many more chips from coming to the USA, or to those that make it to the USA, not to be sold in public places! This, mostly by negotiating with these entrepreneurs in exchange for not letting the police know who are the American culprits. By now, I am always scare to wake up and find a dead horse's head in my bed!!!!! Soon, the Cuban catalog will come out and everything will be there. For now these are some of the most common fake chips to surface.

At quick look, or looked by a not very serious collector, this is a nice Tropicana chip......NOT. This was made by taking the center of the Tropicana (First picture below) and adding it to a much cheaper Havana Madrid chip (look at second scan below). . I would not expect anybody reading this to recognize this, but to any big collector, the chip would look awkward ...because Tropicana never used hubs. So, if something looks awkward...CALL ME! Later the catalog will suffice.

The following chips below are real chips but from other countries which have been sold as if Cuban. MANY OF THESE SELL IN EBAY AS CUBAN.

The chip with metal is from an old MONACO series; The other is from URUGUAY, it sold a lot because the initials, CHM allows them to sell them as if they were from the Havana Madrid Casino.

Later I will put up a second group of chips that are presently being sold, complicated because everyone has them and will cause controversy, but it is what it is!!!

IF YOU HAVE, OR COME ACCROSS A CUBAN CHIP YOU ARE NOT SURE IS REAL, EMAIL ME BEFORE BUYING IT- I WILL GLADLY RESPOND TO YOU- just do not tell the seller who you are checking with. Too many already want my head: tecnamar@aol.com