"It appears we do not disagree the inserts were put on by hand"

Yes we agree.

But, I can not believe a distributor would hot stamp a chip and then paint inserts on before they deliver them. It does not seem to be a professional way to do business.

I think the casino did them after using them awhile. Instead of re-racking they put the inserts on. Just a temporary fix to whatever problem they were having.

I agree, I have seen a lot of chips with painted inserts. Some of the paint looked a lot newer than the wear on the chip.