Beaune, a peaceful town in the heart of Burgundy,
France's wheat-growing heartland, has always brought
to mind great wines and great cuisine. This town,
steeped in history, holds a hidden treasure: this is
where most of the World's casino chips are made.

BOURGOGNE et GRASSET

In the beginning, there were Monsieur BOURGOGNE and
Monsieur GRASSET, two brothers-in-law who first used
a lithography on Celluloid process in manufacturing
plastic products. When it became evident that
Celluloid presented too great of a danger
(combustible), they began using cellulose acetate.
Until 1927, they supplied only jewellers and
eyeglass manufacturers.

Around that time, a huge scandal erupted in
Monte-Carlo. Mother-of-Pearl chips and plaques from the casino had been counterfeited, causing huge losses to the casino.

After reading the story in the newspaper, the two
partners decided to apply their technical skills to
producing a new generation of chips that would offer
total security to casinos. Their solution was
ingenious, indeed. They perfected a process by
which the impression on the chip was protected by a
thin film of plastic that made alteration
impossible. This is how Bourgogne et Grasset began
to produce chips and plaques on a regular basis for
over 800 casinos in more than 90 countries the world
over.

In 1930, Bourgogne et Grasset introduced jetons and
plaques with "lunettes" (translucent disks; lens) as
an added scurity measure. In today's manufacturing
process, each jeton and plaque is comprised of up to
fifteen layers of plastics, with color effects that
are impssible to duplicate.

JB