Ok John suppose it's encapsulated then what? It's opened 20 years from now & found to be altered. Are you going to get what? the price you paid then or what it is worth when discovered? Or is the grading service out of business & nothing. To be very honest I have not purchased a chip with a history of drilled specimens out there in the last 3-4 years. Does this affect the price of pristine chips you bet it does...at least what I am willing to pay for them. If you are a high end collector your searching for rarity. Rarity leaves the possibility of alteration minimal. You want to chance ruining a 5-10k specimen by replacing an inlay your nuts....You learn to look for things like warping & correct sizing etc. before shelling out the cash...you learn to ask questions and the answers to those questions determine what I will pay for a chip. This hobby is no different than life...if it's to good to be true...it isn't true. In the 15 years I've been collecting I have overpaid for chips, purchased chips that were found in large quantities a few months later (yeah right). I have learned from my mistakes. We don't need authentication we need full disclosure...we need to lobby for the hobby protection act to include chips...we need to blacklist the chip doctors, prosecute fraud & have the ability to trust each other and back each other because if one of us gets burned it hurts all of us. The slabbing issue is out there on the surface...it's the trusting issue that needs to be brought up.
Rich