Everything About Casino Chips
By Alex J. Coyne © 2018 Great Bridge Links
Poker chips, also sometimes called tokens, are part of most on- and offline games that you’ll play in a casino; almost every card player knows the sound of a shuffle and draw by heart, and the sound of chips excitedly clicking together is enough to send most gamblers’ hearts racing. But have you ever stopped to really think about the casino chip you’re about to play? Here’s more about poker chips, where they come from and the people who collect them.
Facts About Chips
Do you have a chip on your shoulder? Er, no? We guess not. Here are some facts about chips you might not have thought of before now.
- Size for casino chips are often standardized, and the most common size of poker chips is 39mm for US-based chips to 40mm for chips produced abroad. Here’s a discussion thread on ChipTalk about standardized casino chip sizes.
- How many fit inside a casino rack? 20 of them if they are standard poker sized, according to buypokerchips.com.
- Usually, casino chips are made from ceramic, clay or plastic – though before the common use of casino chips, any items, even small pieces of bone, would count as casino chips.
- The term “blue chip stocks” comes from casino chips: Blue chips are known as high-value chips, hence the term.
- The largest collection of casino chips and gaming tokens is Bruce and Sue Wunder, who have 554 casino chips and have been collecting them since the year 2000, according to Guinness World Records. UPDATE: The largest collection of casino chips is 2,250, and was achieved by Paul A Schaffer (USA), in Kansas City, Missouri, USA, on 30 September 2023. Paul has been collecting casino chips since 2004 and is a Life Member of the National Casino Collectable Association (CCA). He previously held this record title and was eager to reclaim it.
Chip Games
Of course, we all know Poker Chips are used for games of poker and all its variations. If you’re interested in learning poker basics you might enjoy our article Poker 101. But chips are also used in Blackjack and Baccarat. Baccarat is sometimes called the ‘glamour game’ as it is associated with wealth and status. James Bond played baccarat in many of his movies up to the 21st movie where it was replaced with Texas Hodem.
Casino Chip Collecting
Poker and casino chip collecting is a serious hobby, and practiced by hundreds if not thousands of people all over the world. If you don’t believe us, take a look at some YouTube videos from these collectors: Stewart Smith, Gary Scott and Coinweek are just some of the YouTube collectors who have uploaded theirs.
It turns out that it’s such a popular hobby that it even has an official Casino Collectables Association. Their website is available here, or you can find them on Facebook. If you’re interested in collecting casino chips or just want to find out if some you have picked up are worth something, they are your best resource to start off with as a novice collector.
Paul Schaffer has also set up a nice site called Rube’s Casino Chips, a catalogue of his own world record casino chip collection.
From there, you will also want to look at a website called ChipGuide that’ll give you a comprehensive listing of casino chips, their origins and any more interesting information that you might want to know about them. If you want to authenticate any casino chips, this is a good place to start.
The Official US Casino Chip Price Guide by Steve Wells and James Campiglia also belongs on your bookshelf if you are serious about poker chip collecting, or just want to baffle your friends with some trivia about poker chips during your next game. You can find James’ official website over here.