... necessary to protect one's self against getting burned was posted by me on October 24th on both the ChipBoard and the Club Board. While it does not address specific individuals involved, it did provide detailed information about the how to tell the fakes from the real chips and provided a list of the known fakes. I will repeat that information here. Following an introduction that is unnecessary to repeat here, I wrote:

I feel it is now appropriate to post the following information on the subject. I am doing so for two
reasons:

1) To provide information which may be useful to anyone considering the purchase of brass core
material; and

2) To ask that anyone who has information about any of the chips described below and who has not
already contacted or been contacted by me, please do so. I am particularly interested in hearing
from anyone who has purchased any of the specific chips listed below, as well as any other which is
of a color variation not listed in The Chip Rack.

On the other hand, I will not at this time identify any individual involved in this inquiry, regardless of his/her role. All individuals whose names are known to me will be identified in my report to the board, which will make the determination who to identify publicly.

For purposes of this discussion, I will refer to the involved chips, for lack of a more accurate term, as "remanufactured" or "fake". They are not entirely counterfeit, as the cores are legitimate; however, those with which the inquiry are concerned have had plastic added to them by someone other than the original manufacturer and without authorization by the casinos involved.

I have determined that there are at least two and perhaps as many as six individuals producing these
"remanufactured" brass core chips. Unfortunately, I know only one of these people by name (he has
cooperated fully with my inquiry and has agreed not to produce any more of these chips until this
inquiry is concluded).

I have also determined that approximately 80-90 of these chips have been produced by this single
individual. How many may have been produced by others is still unknown to me.

Some of the "remanufactured" chips have been repair jobs (that is, the plastic was removed and
replaced with new plastic of the same color). The two primary purposes for this have been to repair
fire damage and to, in effect, fill "drill" holes in cancelled chips (the hole remains in the brass core, but can no longer be seen visually).

The remainder (and majority) have been to either replace the existing color with a new color or put a color variation on an existing core which had no plastic.

I have confirmed information that the following "remanufactured" brass core chips have been
produced:

Harrah's Pink $2.50 (there is also one known pink $2.50 Harrah's chip which is believed to be
legitimate).

Ranch House $1 White

Crystal Bay Brown $100 & Orange $5 (repaired to match original color and to eliminate cancellation
drill hole)

Crystal Bay Blue $100 was sold on ebay (unknown who produced it)

Ranch House chips various denominations (approximately 7-15 chips which were fire damaged and had the original color plastic replaced)

Harrah's $1 chips in red, white and blue

Silver Smith's $1 chips in red, white and blue

Hard Rock no value red, white, blue & black (the black chips were samples) -- repaired only to
remove glue

A Hard Rock no value purple chip was also sold on eBay and thought to be "remanufactured" by an
unknown person [Note: I now know who produced this chip.]

Hyatt Tahoe $2.50 green (at least one fake has been produced and at least one real one is known to exist)

Reno Ramada $100 (replaced original color)

Ranch House 50 cent chips in a variety of colors

There are two ways to identify the "remanufactured" chips (and a third which may be indicative):

1) The edges (including the metal) will be very smooth, with no machine marks in the metal. This is because they are finished by hand application of various grades of sand papers to remove excess
plastic and this process smooths both the plastic and the metal (and tends to "round" the edges
somewhat).

2) The "remanufactured" chips will not have injection marks, which will always be present on a real chip (at least one in new condition). Injection marks are pin-sized protrusions in the edge of the chip (where injection needle inserts the plastic into the chip mold).

3) Any chip in a color variation not listed in The Chip Rack should be viewed with concern, if not
suspicion. Not all such color variations will be fakes, but most probably will be.

BTW, there are some "marblized" brass cores chips around (mixed colors). The best information I
have at the moment is that these are legitimate (that is, were produced by the original manufacturer during a change over from one color to another; apparently, the easiest way to do this is simply start putting the new color in on top of the old, which produces a few with mixed colors each time there is a change). No marbelized chips have been produced by the individual known to be producing "remanufactured" chips.

Jim Reilly
Claims Director
CC>CC
LM3606-38