In the early part of the 1900’s chips were commonly molded from Plaskon,The History of Clay Poker Chips Articles an ureaformaldehyde molding compound. In the 1930’s die cut metal foil was applied to the chips to give unique identity and added security. Bugsy Siegel opened the Flamingo Casino with these chips.
E-PokerChips.com tells us that the 1950’s saw most casinos using the newest chips with house designs, logos or both molded into the rim and top of chip. Today the style and materials utilized in the manufacture of gaming chips are unique to the particular casino. Some have metal “coin” centers with structural plastic outer rims. Cloth fiber reinforced polymer molded chips and a just introduced all metal alloy poker chip that is anodized in different brilliant colors.
Clay composite chips can be quite expensive and difficult to find due to their popularity. These chips usually are in weight ranges between 8 grams and 11.5 grams and are casino standard 39 mm diameter.