What are Poker chips made of?

Our custom poker chips are made of clay but Poker chips can be made of Plastic, Ceramic, or Clay. Most Poker chips for the home market are made of Plastic, these are the chips that are all over Ebay and mostly are called "Clay Composite". Chips can be made of other materials such as Wood and Metal but these are rare and beyond the scope of this discussion. Below you will find a brief description of each common type of chip.

Plastic Chips

Clearly the phrase "Clay composite" does not resemble plastic but thats what they are. They are made of injection molded Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) plastic with a metal weight in the centre which gives them that cheap "ting" when you shuffle them. These type of chip will weigh from 11.5 grams (The most common) up to around 14 grams! The metal weight has been added for 2 reasons, first, without it they would weigh around 6 grams which is too light, secondly, there became a strange "My chips are heavier than yours" competition which gave rise to these monster 14 gram chips.

Above a typical plastic "Clay composite" chip. There is nothing clay composite about this chip.

Ceramic Chips

Ceramic chips are often found in Casinos as special edition chips, they are great for advertising as they have edge to edge printing. They weigh around 10 grams which is a great weight and have a unique feel and sound which suits some but is not traditional. A great chip but very expensive and can take several months from conception to delivery.

Clay Chips

Clay chips are the most common chip found in casinos, they weigh from 9 to 10 grams, ours weigh 9.5 grams, and have that fantastic feel and sound that all poker players love, the perfect chip for shuffling... There are no metal weights as with the plastic variety, the 9.5 grams is it's natural weight.

As you can see there are several options and each has it's advantages and disadvantages. Plastic, or "Clay composite" as they would tell you on Ebay are too heavy and sound metallic but they are very cheap. Ceramic look great, have a good weight but are not traditional and not to everybody's taste, they are also expensive and can take months to acquire. Clay chips, look, feel and sound great, are loved by everyone and because of our unique customisation process are very quick to deliver.

Above a recent example of a customised clay poker chip using one of our popular templates, "Four Aces".

As you can see there are several options and each has it's advantages and disadvantages. Plastic, or "Clay composite" as they would tell you on Ebay are too heavy and sound metallic but they are very cheap. Ceramic look great, have a good weight but are not traditional and not to everybody's taste, they are also expensive and can take months to acquire. Clay chips, look, feel and sound great, are loved by everyone and because of our unique customisation process are very quick to deliver.