The C/W guide I have indicates a top end value of $90, which is consistent with the TCR.

I know nothing of counterfeits, I have none of the chips that Gene listed, I am only passing along information I picked up in a chance meeting with a Castaways employee who was there for many years, including the last day.

In our conversation, he told me how protective the pit was of a single rack of $500 chips, and that on closing day they were giving the chips out as souvenirs to the employees. He has long since given his away.

When I asked him to describe the chip he provided three elements, the face value, the overall color (blue) and the coin-in-center. After that description I opened a copy of the C/W guide and when I got to the Castaways page, he immediately spotted the picture of the $500 and said, "thats it!"

Other than meeting this guy at the poker table, I do not know him from Adam. He did give me his name, and contrary to what I posted before, he was a poker dealer at the Castaways (not a blackjack dealer).

He was very adamant about the quantity of chips, however it was he that brought up quantity, not me. Although it was in the context of how protective the pit was with the rack, and that they disliked bringing it out from the vault.

His quantity of 100 did not square with the R-3 assessment in the C/W guide, which is why I asked the question.

As someone has posted, "counterfeits" are knock-offs of an original, and if the term "counterfeits" was intended and they really do exist, then there is a mix of valid and counterfeit chips out there. And perhaps this past employee is giving us a detail that we did not know before, i.e., of all the blue $500 chips out there, only 100 are real, the rest are fakes.

I will be interested to find out more.

Jim Follis