"I kind of assumed (wrong it appears) that it was the way old Chipcos were made."

Not necessarily wrong. Some Chipco chips with red ink bleed without coming into contact with anything (the Midnight Rose $5 was bought new from the cage - it has bled all over itself just sitting in a rack). There was also a short period of time when Chipco made a boat load of chips for a number of different casino that had a bad mix in the composite recipe that saw all of the colors on the chips just fade away. I paid $100 for this Aspen Mine $25 chip when the colors were correct. It is fading away like the Cheshire Cat. I'll sell it to anyone who wants it for $20, post paid.