Third Reich poker chip

[Hillbilly Prince]

I was in a flea market about twelve years ago and found one of those little wood trinket boxes. There was some old odds and ends in it and one of them was this poker chip.

 

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[Red James Cash]

Could be.But you have to remember the swastika was a magic symbol long long before hitler used it as the Nazi symbol.

 

[A2coins]

cool relic the story it could tell

 

[Hawks88]

I agree with Red James Cash. But nice find.

 

[Hillbilly Prince]

Could be.But you have to remember the swastika was a magic symbol long long before hitler used it as the Nazi symbol.

Apparently made o f clay-not particularly valuable. There were tokens,a jack(no ball) glasscutter and such, all of which were old. Found a signature0 on the box bottom in pencil. Can't read it yet.

 

[Joe-Dirt]

I was in a real dive bar in New Orleans last year and the floor was covered in swasticas, I’ll post a picture of it, cuz I know I took one, bourbon brings out the photographer in me(: and dancer and arm wrestler but that’s a different story that needs to not be told

 

[Joe-Dirt]

Here we go, it’s in a fine little place off of Canal street in NOLA, the folks were actually very nice and they had killer red beans and rice

 

[diggummup]

Just because something has a swastika on it, does not make it Nazi related. A main symbol in many east Indian religions to this day, Hinduism, Buddhism, etc., the swastika has been around since ancient times. Hitler succeeded in demonizing it obviously.

 

[Joe-Dirt]

Yes, we know. The ones I posted are also facing the wrong way, I think the point is how frequently it was used before the nazis hijacked it

 

[Red James Cash]

It's thousands of years old.As a Nazi symbol hitler took it,turned it around and set it on it's corner.As a magic,good luck,etc,symbol the swastika sat on it's flat side not a corner.Hitler was heavily into the occult

 

[diggummup]

Yes, we know. The ones I posted are also facing the wrong way, I think the point is how frequently it was used before the nazis hijacked it

I agree with the "point", it's a sad fact.
The position of it's display however is another myth. Both the right-facing and left-facing variants are employed in Hinduism and Buddhism; however, the left-facing is more commonly used in Buddhism than Hinduism and the right-facing is more commonly used in Hinduism than Buddhism. Figured I'd point that out too. I don't like mistruth's.

Also, although Hitler did turn the swastika on a tilted axis, the idea was not originally his. Here is one attached to a ribbon. Notice it is tilted? This is not a Nazi related swastika.

 

[ToddsPoint]

They're everywhere! Oh no! Gary

 

[Rookster]

Nice find Hillbilly.

 

[Hillbilly Prince]

From the article link below:
"The word "swastika" comes from the Sanskrit svastika: "su" meaning "good," "asti" meaning "to be," and "ka" as a suffix.

Predates the ancient Egyptian symbol, the Ankh!) Artifacts such as pottery and coins from ancient Troy show that the swastika was a commonly used symbol as far back as 1000 BCE.

During the following thousand years, the image of the swastika was used by many cultures around the world, including in China, Japan, India, and southern Europe. By the Middle Ages, the swastika was a well known, if not commonly used, symbol, but was called by many different names:

China - wan
England - fylfot
Germany - Hakenkreuz
Greece - tetraskelion and gammadion
India - swastika
Though it is not known for exactly how long, Native Americans also have long used the symbol of the swastika.

The Original Meaning
The word "swastika" comes from the Sanskrit svastika: "su" meaning "good," "asti" meaning "to be," and "ka" as a suffix.

Until the Nazis used this symbol, the swastika was used by many cultures throughout the past 3,000 years to represent life, sun, power, strength, and good luck.

Even in the early twentieth century, the swastika was still a symbol with positive connotations. For instance, the swastika was a common decoration that often adorned cigarette cases, postcards, coins, and buildings.
"During World War I, the swastika could even be found on the shoulder patches of the American 45th Division and on the Finnish air force until after World War II.

A Change in Meaning
In the 1800s, countries around Germany were growing much larger, forming empires; yet Germany was not a unified country until 1871. To counter the feeling of vulnerability and the stigma of youth, German nationalists in the mid-nineteenth century began to use the swastika, because it had ancient Aryan/Indian origins, to represent a long Germanic/Aryan history.

By the end of the nineteenth century, the swastika could be found on nationalist German volkisch periodicals and was the official emblem of the German Gymnasts' League.

In the beginning of the twentieth century, the swastika was a common symbol of German nationalism and could be found in a multitude of places such as the emblem for the Wandervogel, a German youth movement; on Joerg Lanz von Liebenfels' antisemitic periodical Ostara; on various Freikorps units; and as an emblem of the Thule Society."

https://www.thoughtco.com/the-history-of-the-swastika-1778288

I just wanted to show you my stupid clay poker chip. Dang!
But seriously, I enjoy how a post on Tnet can lead to all sorts of information.

 

[Professor of Engineering]

Interesting find!

 

[Red-Coat]

You are very lucky to those who have found such an interesting (and valuable) thing.

I know this is an old thread which has been woken up, but just to reiterate that these chips are from the early part of the 20th Century and not valuable.

Earlier information on this thread refers to them as ‘clay’ but usually they are made from early plastics such as bakelite and celluloid. They’re not German, have nothing to do with the Nazis, and date between about 1907 to the early 1930s before association with the Nazi party caused the swastika symbol to be renounced in many parts of the world.

Mostly these chips were produced in America. Here’s a box that indicates them to be US chips and also says they are ‘Paranoid inlaid’ ('Paranoid' being one of many proprietary names for early plastics).



And here’s a page from the 1923 catalogue of Schoverling Daly & Gales (302-304 Broadway NY) which includes that same design as one of their offerings.

 

[Xraywolf]

The "tilt" Nazis tended to use was [is] called "mobile".

Some of the more notable groups which used it as a good luck charm were the Boy Scouts and Coca-Cola. A US artillery regiment used it as the unit symbol in WW1.
Am doubting the example in OP is TR related. Germans of the time saw it as sacred and didn't often use it for trivial things.

 

[billb]

Yes indeed imagine the stories it could tell