Rich, Most of the chips that Paulson notches are in fact samples that are provided to the casinos for their approval as well as to gaming authorities in various states. Some are kept by the manufacturer for future reference & others are given to sales personnel as samples to show to customers. I'm sure that Gene could ellaborate further. I have a number of these notched chips in high denonimations as well as being oversized. I have some chips with serial numbers that go beyond the actual issue number of the chip. It always helps if you make friends with Paulson salesmen.