I thought I had a duplicate from a lot I purchased. Normally I don't look too closely for Hot Stamp variations other than mold & cent sign differences. Happened accros this by accident while photoshopping the background out. Please note, the color difference is not taken into account here but they appear to be different issues.

When the denominations are lined up the dots on the LHS chip align almost perfectly but the dots on the RHS chip do not! You can then look at the top of the cent slash and see where it lines up with the E in STRIKE. Definately different. All the text on the RHS chip is rotated clockwise. I've seen this same thing on an Ambassador $1 chip before.

So....my question is......are the dies for hot stamps in more than one piece? Do they make the text & then slip a generic denomination piece in the center? If not then they would certainly seem like two different dies were used, thus a re-order.

Opinions sought & welcomed!

Cheers, Tim.