Methods and devices are described that authenticate portable tokens, such as plastic tokens used in casinos on card tables. The systems and methods assign authentication data to a token. The authentication data is verified when a person tries to redeem value on the token. A person's authentication data may be acquired via an interface provided by a gaming machine, for example, and the authentication data stored so that the authentication information is later be read when someone tries to redeem value on the token. Only a person who presents the tokens and authentication data could then negotiate such tokens.