I am trying to sell some of these chips, so please do think I am trying to "guild the lilly", but someone just sent me this story on thr Grand Casino - St. Maaten chips...

There is a story that goes along with these Grand Casino chips - as you know the
casino was destroyed by hurricane Luis in 1995. Immediately after the casino
fell it was looted by locals. They went nuts - they stole all the furniture,
gaming equipment, etc. Some of the more astute theives went straight for the
casino vault which they attempted to pry open with crowbars, etc. Realizing
they couldnt gain entry using just leverage and drills they blew the whole
thing up with dynamite. The blast was so immense that they ended up blowing up
much of the money in the vault along with many of the chips. They did make off
with the remaining cash in the safe. Since that time the blown up vault (still
containing the seemingly worthless chips) has been just sitting around amidst
the ruins - the property has not been developed since the old casino was
destroyed. A local business man recently gained permission from the old manager
of the casino to collect all the chips which were mostly very dirty, wet, etc
from sitting around exposed to the elements for so long - he wanted to give
them to his kids to play with. After he collected them all from the property
another local made him an offer for the lot. They cleaned up all the chips and
tried selling them on eBay. They were mostly unsuccessfull - mostly because
they lacked basic english skills - and I managed to buy many of the chips. They
are the ones who told me this history. I would imagine that when the vault was
originally looted people took all the $1000 and $5000 chips they could find
just because they perceived they might have some value.