Illegal card club chip lookalikes

DrCreep · #1 (**permalink**) 01-18-2007, 03:37 PM

Hi everybody,

I hope I'm posting this is the right forum, but I'm looking for some help on getting ideas for my labels.

I just purchased a nice size set of Nexgen Bees (Hoping to join that illustrious Generation Nex). I chose the Bees because of their colour scheme and looks and with the intent to get some custom labels. While I'm still very up in the air about what I want to do (I don't even know what I'm going to call my "card room" yet).

There's been some very cool designs on the major casino chips, but it seems a bit too much for me. My personality fits more with the back room underground card club type. I've been looking on some collector sites around the net for old illegal casino chips, but really haven't found much that strike me as a design I could use. From the looks, it seems a lot of them simply hot-stamped their chips. I don't mind the look of that, but I think the bees are meant for a nice label.

So, this brings me to my request.

I'm curious if any of you know of any sites out there where I could get a good look at some neat chips from old illegal or underground card clubs? I'm trying to stay away from the "X's hotel and casino" or "X's bar and Grill" type of theme. I seem to see a lot more of that on custom chips than I do anything fitting to a back room card parlor. I guess I'm just striving for some uniqueness or something.

Maybe there's a way to get somewhere in between underground and mainstream styles?

I dunno, hit me up with ideas if you have any. If you have any resources that I could look at to get a design at least started, that'd be a big help too. I'd much rather bring a basic design and ask for refinements than feel like a mooch and say "design my chips for me?"

I'm just looking for ideas.

Thanks guys, very much. I'll check back regularly here, or you can PM me.

Doc

Harlequin011 · #2 (**permalink**) 01-18-2007, 03:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DrCreep

Hi everybody,

I hope I'm posting this is the right forum, but I'm looking for some help on getting ideas for my labels.

I just purchased a nice size set of Nexgen Bees (Hoping to join that illustrious Generation Nex). I chose the Bees because of their colour scheme and looks and with the intent to get some custom labels. While I'm still very up in the air about what I want to do (I don't even know what I'm going to call my "card room" yet).

There's been some very cool designs on the major casino chips, but it seems a bit too much for me. My personality fits more with the back room underground card club type. I've been looking on some collector sites around the net for old illegal casino chips, but really haven't found much that strike me as a design I could use. From the looks, it seems a lot of them simply hot-stamped their chips. I don't mind the look of that, but I think the bees are meant for a nice label.

So, this brings me to my request.

I'm curious if any of you know of any sites out there where I could get a good look at some neat chips from old illegal or underground card clubs? I'm trying to stay away from the "X's hotel and casino" or "X's bar and Grill" type of theme. I seem to see a lot more of that on custom chips than I do anything fitting to a back room card parlor. I guess I'm just striving for some uniqueness or something.

Maybe there's a way to get somewhere in between underground and mainstream styles?

I dunno, hit me up with ideas if you have any. If you have any resources that I could look at to get a design at least started, that'd be a big help too. I'd much rather bring a basic design and ask for refinements than feel like a mooch and say "design my chips for me?"

I'm just looking for ideas.

Thanks guys, very much. I'll check back regularly here, or you can PM me.

Doc

Hello Doc,

This has been the center of conversation for some time with the wife and I. In fact I was dreaming up ideas for the old underground casinos from our area. In fact the name of the chips were going to be called "The Underground".

There are several resources you can find by googling 'midwest casinos'

Good luck, also do a search on illegal casinos, and see if you can find the guide.

kmalsom · #3 (**permalink**) 01-18-2007, 03:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Harlequin011

Hello Doc,

This has been the center of conversation for some time with the wife and I. In fact I was dreaming up ideas for the old underground casinos from our area. In fact the name of the chips were going to be called "The Underground".

There are several resources you can find by googling 'midwest casinos'

Good luck, also do a search on illegal casinos, and see if you can find the guide.

There's a post with a link to the guide. Search on here as well.

I thought about doing some that said either "The Backroom" or "The Basement"

Wedge Rock · #4 (**permalink**) 01-18-2007, 04:00 PM

Here is the first page of Rich Hanover's crest and seal - Non-nevada... It'll give you a ton of ideas... Its where I started. Check the Nevada ones too... And the rest of the links on that site.

http://www.angelfire.com/extreme/chipper/California.htm

Check Ed Hertel's illegal chips site too:

http://www.chipster.net/history.htm

I also had the idea of an underground card room/crest and seal theme... I had a ton of help from wijwij in putting together some ideas. And although they never came to fruition, some ideas still live in a custom ASM set...

http://www.chiptalk.net/forum/custom...sign-help.html

Unfortunately, most of the images posted by wij are down, but I think I have his worked saved somewhere if you are interested...

DrCreep · #5 (**permalink**) 01-24-2007, 08:52 AM

I didn't mean to leave this thread hanging... just got busy over the week.

Anyways, thanks for those links Wedge. Being from Cincinnati and having always been intrigued by Phoenix's, I was quite fond of the Phoenix club chips on Rich Hanover's site:

(I didn't see on his site anything saying not to use images... I have it hosted on my website so as to not burden his site with unneccesary requests, I'll remove it if this is bad-form)

I'll have to play around with some designs, maybe modernize the graphic a bit and add a small amount of colour.

I'm still up in the air about denominations. I'm starting to see the need for them, but I'm definitely drawing the line when it comes to currency... I only want to do numbers.

Has anyone here gone through that same debate? What factors did you take into consideration? What was your final outcome and why?

I'm going to see if I can find out some more history on the Phoenix Club. Google only has a small amount of information, so I'll have to dig deeper.

If any of you have any ideas for design around the PC chip, feel free to post. I'm thinking about changing the bird slightly to look less like a goose (my vision of a Phoenix has never been quite a long-necked bird like on the chip). I'd probably alter the font, but only slightly... just to modernize the look a bit. As for numbers, I'd probably do something toward the bottom of the frame of the graphic, but I have no idea how I would font or colour it. I'll do some sketching and post back when I have something a bit better than a poor description.

Keep the ideas coming though... I'm always open to other ideas for these sorts of chips... I'll keep googling for old illegal card-rooms too.

Thanks everyone for the help.
Doc

Wedge Rock · #6 (**permalink**) 01-24-2007, 09:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DrCreep

(I didn't see on his site anything saying not to use images... I have it hosted on my website so as to not burden his site with unneccesary requests, I'll remove it if this is bad-form)

Generally, I think if you give credit for the image and host it on your own (to save bandwidth), its not an issue. It would be best to ask Rich if it was okay, but I think I did that when I wanted to post some of his photos and he had no problem, he just asked that I host them myself.

As for the design... I recall that someone else wanted to use a phoenix with a different design... I remember doing a quick mock-up using a more modern image (think Trans Am) and the denom was right between the wings above the head. That's fine is you want a small cash set with no denoms larger than 100. You might search the forums here for that thread, as it may give you some ideas.

EDIT:

Here's the design thread: http://www.chiptalk.net/forum/custom...hlight=phoenix

Here's the final chips produced: http://www.chiptalk.net/forum/custom...hlight=phoenix

ross · #7 (**permalink**) 01-25-2007, 09:21 AM

Here's a couple of NY illegals that I always liked.

DrCreep · #8 (**permalink**) 01-25-2007, 11:10 AM

Ross,

Was an illegal club actually using Nexgens??? Or is that a mockup?

It's neat to actually see graphics on chips from illegal clubs though... most of what I've ever seen has been hot stamps and the occaisional single colour image on the chip.

Wedge Rock · #9 (**permalink**) 01-25-2007, 11:55 AM

That Diamond Club is excellent.

ross · #10 (**permalink**) 01-25-2007, 02:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DrCreep

Ross,

Was an illegal club actually using Nexgens??? Or is that a mockup?

It's neat to actually see graphics on chips from illegal clubs though... most of what I've ever seen has been hot stamps and the occaisional single colour image on the chip.

Nope, that's a real chip right off the tables.... there are still a couple open in NYC but it changes week to week. I havent been to one in a while - although I am invited, which I can't see as a good thing