Here is a composite scan of four different Palace Station Bud Jones, CIC $1 chips. Both TCR and C/W guides list 2 issues of this chip, however, IMO each issue has two varities. I have tried to show the two varities (for each issue) with this composite scan, but depending on the resolution quality of your monitor, the differences may be hard to spot. Therefore, I will describe each one.

Please note that unlike the higher denomination Palace Station BJ CIC chips, these are still in-play and were not part of the redemption program. They are used in the poker room only, and when you put in as much time as I have at those tables (with lots of chips in your rack) these differences are more noticable.

The inset scan shows all four of these chips on-edge, with an arrow pointing to which chip is associated to which edge view. All of these BJ CIC have four edge inserts, which is a line between every regular insert.

Chips 1 and 2 are from the same issue (the later issue) and are obviously different from the earlier issue (chips 3 and 4) by the "BJ" and "NV" markings. However, chip 1 and 2 are different from each other in the way that each CIC appears. At chip 1 the metal disk has a smooth (very flat) surface and the stamping of the numeral and words are very sharp. Chip 2 on the other hand has a un-even surface, almost pillowy around the edges of the stampings. Also, the reflectiveness (or shine) of chip 2 is chrome-like, while chip 1 (and 3 and 4 for that matter) are flat, or dull. The plastic rings of both chips are the same; it is only the CIC's show a difference.

Chips 3 and 4 are different as a function of the plastic rings. If you look at the inset scan you will see that the edge inserts (a line) is thinner for chip 4 than it is for chip 3 (and 1 and 2 for that matter). Additionally, although this scan cannot acurately show this difference, there is a consistent shade difference of the tan inserts. For chip 4 the tan color has a greyness to it. This difference is readily apparent when you have a stack of chips, with the inserts aligned and only one of the 20 is this variety. This variety is the least common of all four chips, however, in a random rack of 100 chips, I usually find 5 - 10 of them.

Thats it!

Jim Follis