[Ads-l] Antedatings of "blue chip"

[Dan Goncharoff]

I have to ask: why is "blue chip" without any context of value important?
On Dec 14, 2015 5:48 PM, "Hugo" <hugovk at gmail.com> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Hugo <hugovk at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Antedatings of "blue chip"
>
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>
> blue chip, n.
>
> A blue-coloured counter used in gambling and poker. OED: 1873.
>
> Here's a couple of antedatings, both in the card game of faro:
>
> ---
> We have had another descent by the police upon the faro banks, and the
> capture of an indefinite quantity of red, white and blue chips, card
> boxes, faro tables, playing cards, etc, etc.
> ---
> Memphis daily appeal. (Memphis, Tenn.), 13 Oct. 1862. Chronicling
> America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.
> <http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045160/1862-10-13/ed-1/seq-2/>
>
> ===
>
> This 1866 newspaper writes of a man of "most luxurious habits":
>
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> Languidly and with a becoming blase air he would walk up to the faro
> table of a gaming room and invest a few hundreds in "blue chips" just
> as a starting "stake."
> ---
> The Wheeling daily intelligencer. (Wheeling, W. Va.), 18 Jan. 1866.
> Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.
> <http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84026844/1866-01-18/ed-1/seq-3/>
>
> ===
>
> Hugo
>
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