Please see the caveats later in the discussion. Here is an updated (v2) based on the comments so far in this thread. (For example, if you go on Etsy or other sites you can find people making chips out of various metals and other impractical materials.)Īnyway, here is the starter chart I made in a spreadsheet program:
I also haven't included various novelty/bespoke materials. I am really not sure when some of the early materials (various forms of bone and wood) started to disappear, but I suspect it was by 1930 or so, as modern materials started to take over the markets. I’m not trying to go back farther in to the history of gambling pre-poker. Note that I focused only on checks/tokens/other placeholders for currency used in poker games. I may be completely off on some/all items, and probably I have forgotten some type of chip which should be mentioned. I am throwing this out there not as anything even remotely authoritative, but as a conversation starter.
I was surprised not to find such a timeline (though it is quite possible my google skillz failed me).īelow is my first *totally provisional, off-the-cuff, totally spitballed attempt* at a timeline. For a writing project, I went hunting around the interwebs for a simple timeline of what materials were used for poker chips across the roughly two-century history of the game.
