[Oldcycles]

Bump for new photo in first post.

[northernferg]

Hi,

I decided to jump over here with this reply rather than continue on the Chipboard as it's easier to keep track of things here.

Discovered I still had an old e-mail from Mike Spinetti in 2003 that has a link to the photo he was using when he had the chips for sale. Your friend probably pai either $.40 or $.45 per chip at the time.

Here is the link, which still works:

http://members.aol.com/FINNETTI/MVC668F.JPG

Once again, good luck!!

Neil

[jamby]

I'm wondering the same thing.

Of course, the Winner Club chips were supposedly made for a Korean gambling junket operator and they're in English as well.

-jamby

Originally Posted by Oldcycles

Oh
one other question.
Wouldn't the emperor casino be in korean or chinese if they were from the casino?

[Oldcycles]

Originally Posted by northernferg

Hi,

I decided to jump over here with this reply rather than continue on the Chipboard as it's easier to keep track of things here.

Discovered I still had an old e-mail from Mike Spinetti in 2003 that has a link to the photo he was using when he had the chips for sale. Your friend probably pai either $.40 or $.45 per chip at the time.

Here is the link, which still works:

http://members.aol.com/FINNETTI/MVC668F.JPG

Once again, good luck!!

Neil

First time he said he paid .50 then after I let it know I was interested it was .60. lol

Thanks again for your help.

[northernferg]

Originally Posted by jamby

I'm wondering the same thing.

Of course, the Winner Club chips were supposedly made for a Korean gambling junket operator and they're in English as well.

-jamby

It does seem a bit strange that a casino operated in North Korea by a Hong Kong based company would use English on their chips but they did.

I did quite a bit of research on the Emperor Casino a few years ago and I can vouch for the parent company, the "Emperor Group" using English in much of their business promotion. As I mentioned in the related thread over at the Chipboard, I saw a photo from their website (can't find it now but I did see it and had even printed it) that showed a close-up one of the chips in question with a $1 chip of the same design but a different colour, so I'm confident that the chips are the same as the ones they were using. It is my understanding that they just were not delivered to the Emperor Group for some reason and Mike Spinetti ended up with them.

If you follow the link below you will get a page from the Emperor Group site that shows the Casino Hotel in North Korea. The name of the hotel is shown in English on the front of the hotel and their crown logo - the same as the one on the chips and the one they use to brand their other businesses - is clearly visible over the entry.

http://www.emperor.com.hk/page.php?p_id=238

I'd love to get one of the $1 chips and any other denominations if anybody ever comes across one!

Best regards,

Neil

[Gaming Ore]

While attending the End-of-Summer Chip Show at Arizona Charlie's (Decatur), Las Vegas, NV last Friday I found out two interesting tidbits relating to the $5 chip.

If you have not been to a chip show, I need to explain a "bargin bin" bucket. Chips dealers, throughout their career buy many, many smaller (and some times larger) chip collections and over time end up with 100's and 1,000's of chips that are worn, chipped, or simply of lesser value. To dispose of these chips, dealers will dump them into plastic trays/buckets and post a clearance sign. Most clearance prices are "$1 per chip" or "3 for $10" or "$2 each" or "$3 each" or "$1 over face", etc.

Nearly all the dealers do this and at the show I came across a "$3 each" bucket that had an Emperor $5 (uncirculated) chip. (I did not buy it.) Of course this was not a situation of having hundreds of $5 chips, it was just one chip, but at $3, it was more than I wanted to pay for it (knowing how many hundreds are out there).

The second tidbit was that I had a discussion with Mike Spinetti about the possible origin of the chips. Mike said that he did not get them Paul-Son directly. Instead, another dealer had acquired them from Paul-Son and Mike got them from that person. When Mike got them, they came with the Korean casino story, to which Mike had no reason to not believe.

Mike does confirm that he only got $5 chips and he does not know of the existence of any other denomination. (This does not mean that there are no other denominations, only that Mike is unaware of any.)

Knowing that nearly every find of a quantity of chips always has a story behind it, in the absence of any absolute proof of associating these $5 chips to any casino, if I owned one of these chips, I would not label it as being from the Emperor Casino, North Korea.

Just my opinion.

Jim (Gaming Ore) Follis

[Oldcycles]

Originally Posted by Gaming Ore

While attending the End-of-Summer Chip Show at Arizona Charlie's (Decatur), Las Vegas, NV last Friday I found out two interesting tidbits relating to the $5 chip.

If you have not been to a chip show, I need to explain a "bargin bin" bucket. Chips dealers, throughout their career buy many, many smaller (and some times larger) chip collections and over time end up with 100's and 1,000's of chips that are worn, chipped, or simply of lesser value. To dispose of these chips, dealers will dump them into plastic trays/buckets and post a clearance sign. Most clearance prices are "$1 per chip" or "3 for $10" or "$2 each" or "$3 each" or "$1 over face", etc.

Nearly all the dealers do this and at the show I came across a "$3 each" bucket that had an Emperor $5 (uncirculated) chip. (I did not buy it.) Of course this was not a situation of having hundreds of $5 chips, it was just one chip, but at $3, it was more than I wanted to pay for it (knowing how many hundreds are out there).

The second tidbit was that I had a discussion with Mike Spinetti about the possible origin of the chips. Mike said that he did not get them Paul-Son directly. Instead, another dealer had acquired them from Paul-Son and Mike got them from that person. When Mike got them, they came with the Korean casino story, to which Mike had no reason to not believe.

Mike does confirm that he only got $5 chips and he does not know of the existence of any other denomination. (This does not mean that there are no other denominations, only that Mike is unaware of any.)

Knowing that nearly every find of a quantity of chips always has a story behind it, in the absence of any absolute proof of associating these $5 chips to any casino, if I owned one of these chips, I would not label it as being from the Emperor Casino, North Korea.

Just my opinion.

Jim (Gaming Ore) Follis

As usuall great info.
You do know your the man, right?

[jamby]

Great, informative post (as usual) Jim.

Thanks,
jamby

Originally Posted by Gaming Ore

While attending the End-of-Summer Chip Show ... if I owned one of these chips, I would not label it as being from the Emperor Casino, North Korea.

[northernferg]

Thanks Jim,

I appreciate your caution but I can reiterate that I did see a ( professionally done/commercial) photo from the Emperor Group's own website that showed a chip that exactly matched the one we're discussing in every way -( colour /layout/ etc.).

It is entirely possible that Paulson manufactured copy chips for somebody else but, given the numbers produced and bought/sold on the internet, I'm a bit skeptical that they would have done this. Doesn't sound like Paulson...

I"m happy that I have the chps in my set. I saw the same chip on the Emperor Group corporate website- so if people want to worry that the chip is not really from the company that uses the exactly same crown in all its corporate endeavours throughout Asia, that's great ... the caution on their part will no doubt carry over into their collecting and - I hope- mean that they won't bid against me in eBay auctions for these "fantasy/fakes" .

Unless somebody can come up with a reasoned, credible, alternative explanation about the manufacturing of these chips by Paulson, I'm happy to continue with the evidence I've seen and enjoy them in my game for what they are. Even if there is another explanation (something never, ever, advanced anywhere here or on other chipping sites to my knowledge notwithstanding the amazing chipping expertise here or at the Chipboard) I will still love these chips as a measure of the manufacturing excellence of Paulson.

They are great "old school" Paulson chips.

Best regards,
(and thanks Jim for remaining one of the best chipping resources anywhere)

Neil

[Oldcycles]

Personally I don't care if they are fantasy chips.
I love the colors and edge spots and want them for my home game.