Putting "The Report" aside ... as I have no facts of the specific issue at hand .... this post is being made accusing no one; no pot-stirring; not engaging in any name-calling; and hopefully not offending anyone..., but is intended to be educational in nature.

I've received an email from an un-named source who asked, "what is a brass core chip and what is being removed and replaced and why is this a big problem?" Below was my basic reply ....

For those of you who have a copy of my A.C. Catalog (any issue) .... if you will look in the Caesars Boardwalk Regency color illustrations section ... (page 39 of the 2001 Edition) you will find an aluminum blank core illustrated which I've termed for many years now, "Slug Insert" that was used to produce BOA-25b, 25c, 25d, 25e, and 25f. This is basically the body of what a similar brass core chip would look like before the plastic injection material is applied.

So, if a bunch of brass core chips were drilled for key chains or otherwise cancelled ... and if the material were to be removed from one of these drilled chips and was melted and used to fill holes on other same-color drilled chips .... or if the material was completly stripped from a white drilled chip and replaced with red melted plastic material from another chip, covering the now concealled hole in the core ... which is what is being termed "couterfeits" by some, "altered" by others, or "repaired" by another source.

Now hypothetically speaking, if an un-named person is doing these "alterations" to quantities of drilled chips to make them appear "original" or to manufacture different colored chips from a property that didn't issue chips in those colors.... or if someone has a quantity of blank brass cores (or "slug inserts" as I termed them)... and is filling them with plastic and burnishing or smoothing the plastic surfaces down to the the raised cores .... my simple mind tells me that the intent is to deceive. No amount of dancing around the issue with fancy footwork will convince me otherwise.

On the other hand, if this practice is deemed to be criminal in nature ... I would respectfully suggest to the club officers to wipe their hands clean of this issue and turn the matter over to local law enforcement officials.