Regarding the “Cuban fakes,” here are the facts:

First, pictures of actual vintage 1950’s Cuban chips:
http://www.megsinet.com/wally/Robert/4cubans.jpg

Here are the spurious “fakes:”

$100 1998 Capri:
eBay ad: http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=134500859
picture of chip: http://www.megsinet.com/wally/Robert/capri100.jpg

$5 1998 Riviera:
eBay ad: http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=134503300
picture of chip: http://www.megsinet.com/wally/Robert/riviera5.jpg

$25 1998 Tropicana:
eBay ad: http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=134502230
picture of chip: http://www.megsinet.com/wally/Robert/trop25.jpg

There is so much wrong with these chips that I hardly know where to begin. A few quick points:

(1) As I said before, if they are believed to be 1998 chips (and not vintage chips), that is even worse for chip collectors, at least regarding the $100 Capri's. With the flooding of the US market with old Cuban chips, a current $100 one would be more valuable than the vintage ones. It is terrible for a dealer to put one of these out at auction with no explanation. Everyone should be up in arms. It is altogether conceivable that a modern Cuban casino could be open, and it could be named after an old one.

(2) This is worse than Borland's work in some respects. At least Borland did not use the virtually exact inlays as in the old chips. And he didn't pretend that they could be modern current high value chips.

(3) If Gene is right that 3600 chips were ordered, this is not a private poker set. They will probably be farmed out to other dealers (mostly non-chip dealers) who will sell them bit by bit ("Oh, I don't know what these are!" "I got these at an estate sale!" "I got them from another dealer in trade who said so and so.")

(4) Why shouldn't the hobby protection act apply? On the face of it these fool people. Lots of limited edition chips have dates. These have dates -- old ones, 1998, in fact.