ONE SET OF THREE CASINO CHIPS, Mother-of Pearl, BLUE ON WHITE.
Photo show both sides of the three chips set.
Real old Cuban Casino chips. This type of Casino chips
was made by casinos for very important people, in this case, these very rare
Mother of Pearl chips, were made with the initials JMG, José Miguel Gómez,
(1858-1921) the second President of the Republic of Cuba in 1909.
The first Cuban President, Tomas Estrada Palma, also had this kind of chips, we sold the only chip that we know existed with his intials, the chip is still shown in our site as SOLD OUT, in case you would like to see it.
The only other Cuban Presidents VIP chips that we know exist, are the ones of President José Miguel Gómez, a complete set of three chips, different shapes.
The chips don’t
show a denomination, the different colors and shapes determine the value of
each chip.
These chips were made of Mother-of-Pearl, with inlays with the
initials, and on the reverse side, the Cuba independence Coat of Arms with two
Cuban flags on each side.
The photos don't do justice to the beauty of these chips, they are shinny and any movement of the camera to void reflexion, changes the tone of the colors.
Our research on Cuban chips shows that gambling houses
were in existence in Cuba since the middle of 1800's, and an article at the
Cuban Numismatic Association Newsletter at their website, dated in Oct 2005, by
Dr. Luis A Alvarez and Frank Hinrichs include the following statements:"
...private sets of chips made especially for VIPs in Cuba... can go for many
thousands of dollars, and these tend to be some of the most beautiful chips in
the world....Higher denomination chips are particularly valuable to collectors
due to their rareness. There are Ivories and Mother of Pearls chips with
denominations of 50, 100, and 500". You can read the entire long article
about Cuban chips, including ivory and mother of pearl chips at the CNA website.
Any comments or additional information about this chip
will be most appreciated, please write us if you know anything else about these
chips. The size of the 3 chips are as follows:
Round chip,
Approx. Diameter 33 mm, thickness 5 mm
Large
rectangular chip, Approx. 62 X 20 mm, thickness 5 mm
Small
rectangular chip, Approx. 33 X 23 mm, thickness 5 mm
Have one to sell?