Hi Deb,

One of the compounds that they used to use was the same as they used for old reels of film (or very similar). The film turned brittle over the years, and I believe it was also very flammable (don't know if that held true for dice, too). As the industry learned more, they began using different stuff for the films...I'm sure they did the same for dice. I wouldn't think that new dice would have the same problems...but I'm not 100% sure.

I have seen the dice lose their stamps/paint. Jeff used to use a white crayon to fill in the logos when that happened. I've done the same thing a few times, but I've mixed a little yellow and/or gray and/or brown with the white crayon which IMO gives a more realistic color.

I wouldn't do this on really rare or valuable dice, but if you want to try it you can just color over the logo with the crayon color of your choice, then wipe off the excess with a terry towel. If you want to mix a color use a piece of paper to heavily color with the crayons of your choice until you get a color that you like. Then scrape up the color with your fingernail and apply it to the logo.