What a fortnight decorating the holiday home in France... new roof on the extension, clearing the water ditches of reeds, attacked by hornets, drinking to much wine & getting hold of a complete low value set from the original 1972 issue from the Playboy Clermont Club. In all my years of British chipping I never thought I would ever see this set, let alone own it!

Ordered early in 1972 at the time Playboy acquired the Clermont Club from John Aspinall, these chips were a re-order of the first Playboy decimal issue (1971), but with decals showing the crossed C's Clermont logo. In fact both issues were interchangeable and accepted at both casinos. In terms of glitz and glamour the Clermont was, and still is one of the 3 most exclusive casinos in London. For those of you not 'au fait' with the Club’s history... try Wiki under 'Clermont Set' or Tom Stroh’s piece at http://www.geocities.com/jdskinner123/playboy.html ... Two nice short pieces that tell the tale.

Anyway, these chips were mislabelled on ebay, so my hopes of a bargain were high. Unfortunately at least one other chipper spotted these stunning gems and I ended up paying just over $260 for the three. Is this too much? Your views appreciated

PS I don’t think I’ll be giving these chips a clean, far too much celebrity would be washed away