I've been looking for the second date for the Stardust $25 for quite a while. Got the 1976 version in Doug's auction last month.

Thought I'd show the differences in a scan for those who haven't looked for these dates before. 1976 on the left and 1973 on the right. Other differences are the overall depth of the impression in the aluminum inlay and the size of the date marking. Magnification is the same on both scans and the 1976 date is considerably larger. Also, the surface of the high areas is crosshatched on one chip, smooth on the other.

I could not tell the date of the one in the auction with the naked eye and dim room lights. Pretty clear in a 6x magnification in these scans. the first numeral in each date is generally believed to be the month of manufacture.

Different dates are also found on the two versions of the $5 chip, but one is 74 rather than 73. TCR says the $100 has only one date version, 974, but mine says 674. I suspect TCR is in error as it's not likely they reordered the 100 the same year it was first manufactured.

TCR also lists two different $500's with different dates and different color edge spots. I have only the green/purple and it's dated 476, as lsted in TCR. Is it possible that there was no Paulson metal inlay 500 made with the first lot of chips? James' book indicates there were 500's dated 1074.