The following is a list of the alterations that the Board is aware of:

3) Repairing rim nicks
4) Gluing broken chips with pigmented glue to avoid the appearance of hairline cracks
5) Re-gluing of inlays that have detached
6) Replacing broken chunks of the chip and inserts
7) Removing of chips from key rings, money clips and bolo ties
8) Resurfacing of chips damaged in concrete or by cigarette burns
9) Swapping good inlays from damaged chips to good chips
10) Removing hot stamp cancellation and/or the reconditioning of an actual hot stamp
11) Making replica inlays by copying good ones
12) Coating brass core slugs with new plastic
13) Repair of drill cancellation
14) Concealment of cancellations

I'm guilty of... the following two, which I clipped from the above list.

1) The straightening of heat warped chips
2) Removal of varnish and/or glue

1. I have a chip that was warped, so I placed a tool box on it, and it was straight after a week. If I put it into a chip box, between other chips and it "went straight" did I alter it, or was it a natural event?

2. I got a sample from Paulson, that had hot glue on it, so I pealed the glue off.

Now what? Do I get kicked out of the club?

I'm begining to think that we are getting a little bit too picky about what's called fraud and what's normal cleaning and protection of chips.

I didn't see oiling chips to make them look better on the list? What about Armour All? How's that different from pealing off some hot glue? Or do we have to define what kind of glues can be removed and what kinds can't?

Is the next step going to be, no cleaning, like coins? Yummy, must have that BS&T finger goop on my chips. *vgb*

I'm not defending the people who make fakes, or remove holes, or replace inlays or inserts. Just wondering how we draw a nice line, that isn't confusing, with hidden traps for the honest people.