Since there's no "official" list of collecting terms, Scott, you will only get opinions in response to your inquiry. As Humpty Dumpty said "I expect words to mean exactly what I want them to mean...". Here's my opinion.

When I see the term "Obsolete" applied to a chip, I interpret it to mean the issuing casino no longer uses it in play and won't sell it from the cage.

This means a chip that is obsolete today, could be 'live' tomorrow if the casino puts it back in play. So the definition I use is dynamic; it applies to the point in time it is used.

Use by another club doesn't mean it's not obsolete with regard to the issuing club; it just means somebody else has assigned value to it (just like a chip dealer does!) <g>

Note that there are some places like Caesars that seem to redeem any of their chips, no matter how old. I don't think this makes them live chips; they're still obsolete, but Caesars and a few others just take the longer view and honor their obligations where others won't.

I know there are other terms that try to work around some of the dynamics of the situation, like "retired" when it's off the tables but still in the vault. I appreciate the attempt at more precision, but think the one term is sufficient; it just needs to be applied to a point in time.

DonL