I received this $5 Money Tree, Reno, NV chip and noticed that it appeared to have a glue mark on one side. Under closer examination I saw that it appeared to have a cancellation mark that looked like the letter "V" or perhaps the Roman Numeral for 5. I told myself I would have to check it out later.

Several days later I ran across another example of the $5 Money Tree, Reno chip and it too had a similar marking, however in that example I could make out a large "W". What I though was a "V" in my example was actually the right half of the letter "W".

It would appear that both of these chips have been cancelled with a "W". The method of cancellation appears to be a Hot-Stamp, however there is no trace of color (gold, silver, black, blue, etc.) what-so-ever in the Hot-Stamp indentation!

The two scans below show my example. The top scan is a view of the entire chip (the cancelled side, where you can just make out the cancellation) and the bottom scan is a close-up of the cancellation. I have drawn in the left half of the "W" with a red outline, and have left the right half un-touched. If you look closely you can see the impression of the right half of the "W" in that it very much looks like the letter "V" only.

So here is my question.....

If this is a cancellation, neither the TCR nor the C/W guide identifies this chip as existing as a cancelled chip. Perhaps this may have been brought up on this BBS before, but....

Can anyone verify that this is a cancellation? Was the Hot-Stamp with or without color? What was the "W" for? And, why was it cancelled?

Thanks,

Jim Follis