"Bargaining Chip": Antedating & Mystery

[Laurence Horn]

At 7:11 PM -0400 8/10/02, Fred Shapiro wrote:
>
>For years I have been posing a question about "bargaining chip" that no
>one has yet answered.  This is widely assumed to be a poker metaphor, but
>I do not know of chips being used for bargaining in poker or any other
>game.  What exactly is the metaphor?
>
Interesting.  I also doubt it's poker; most poker metaphors (and
there are quite a bunch) are pretty transparent, and indeed poker
players don't actually bargain, much less use chips to do so.

larry