no to drilling and no to scratches on the face. I was at Gambler's Gen Store last week and they even have some dice that have one of the spots popped out. Don't know if that was the process or if they were drilled on the spot but.... They look like crap! I will pass on those too, thank you very much. I know very little about dice...yet, but I would think that the drilling would weaken the integrity of the dice also. You see dice that are 30 YO and they look bad. They start breaking down. I would assume that the drilling would make it worse on them or accelerate the process.. Hopefully these new dice will not have the problem that the old ones have. I guess we'll find out in about 20 or 30 yrs . I know there are other people on the board that know a lot more about dice than me. Those are just MY 2 cents