The color issue is a difficult one, isn’t it?
- Everyone sees colors differently
- PaulSon’s color chart is great, except that no one else has ever used those colors (Burt Co., Bud Jones and T. R. King being notable others), and as Dick Covington has pointed out, even PaulSon isn’t consistent in its color mixing/matching
- At best, color charts – especially those produced by chip manufacturers – are good only for unused, mint-condition chips produced by the manufacturer who produced the chart
- Ultraviolet light fading and darkening from skin oils, food remnants, liquids, etc., change the colors substantially from what they were when originally made

Quite a number of years ago, Howard Herz spoke at a convention to propose adopting a standard universal color chart so we’d all know what we meant by “lavender.” Printers use such a chart, but they are prohibitively expensive. Stamp collectors use a standard chart, obtainable for $5 or $6 (maybe $10 by now!), and that’s the chart, along with the PaulSon chart, that Howard proposed that the club adopt.

His suggestion went nowhere. There was no groundswell of opinion in favor of it, and the Board at the time wasn’t sure the membership would support the adoption of a standard of any kind.

Perhaps it’s time to revisit the suggestion. In fact, the Board at last year’s convention appointed Herz head of a “standards committee,” but unfortunately nothing’s been done with it yet. There haven’t been any meetings or communications among committee members so far, but hopefully that will change. Color description is one of the first suggestions I’ll have for standardization.

On a personal note, I’m somewhat concerned that if such a standard is adopted, we have 16,000 chips in TCR8 that will all have to be re-described. And the problem is, none of the 3 of us has all those chips!

Michael