Coin-aligned vs. medal-aligned is a term I learned from Janice many years ago. Mostly it applies to tokens & coins.

Coin alignment is like all coins are minted, where the bottom of the image on one side corresponds to the top side of the image on the reverse side. Check any coin in your pocket for an illustration.

Medal alignment is the opposite -- top on one side corresponds to the top on the other side. Think of a medal (Olympic medal, etc.) hanging from a ribbon around your neck. You want the top to read right-side-up from either side.

Because tokens are struck on both sides on the press at the same time, the dies can be aligned. In contrast, most chips are manufactured with random alignment, where the obverse & reverse are not in relation to each other. The exception is Chipco chips, which are all coin-aligned. (I assume Chipco applies the graphics on both sides at the same time, to account for this alignment.)

The Paulson chips that you've noticed this new alignment on appear to be medal-aligned.