In my post from last week, which had a different heading and may not have been seen by you or D-squared, included this comment:

"For the TCR authors, these (the Mardi Gras chips) are more than likely E9159 and E9160, the 25 and 100 NCVs, respectively. These are the same on both sides, and not as described in TCR #12 as: "...alligator / Chinese writing; 43mm" in that there is no Chinese writing and instead are marked as "Mardi Gras" as indicated in the Chip and Token Report of the Nevada Gaming Commission for 2009."

Jay, I do not know why TCR #12 has E9159 and E9160 described with "Chinese writing". I can only suggest that they might have been confused with E8198 and E8190, which do have Chinese writing, are a similar color and are 4mm, and we had a scan of them as I first posted here back in December of 2008, when I received them as a gift.

To my knowledge, the "Mardi Gras" versions have been unseen until my post, but we knew about them from the Nevada Gaming Commission's "Chip and Token Report".

I guess it is possible that The Orleans (which BTW is the actual name for the casino, not "Orleans") has a 3rd set of over-sized 25 and 100 NCVs, but if they do, I am not aware of them, nor is the Gaming Commission (based on the Chip and Token report).

Lastly, I would suggest that E8189 and E8190 are not specific to Year of the Rat and in fact, may not be related to any Lunar New Year, and are just "Good Luck" chips for their Asian patrons when used for Pai Gow Tournaments. But I am not certain how any of these NCV's were used.

Jim