Date on the box and date on the card are 3 years apart. Is the date on the box when the chips were produced and the date on the card when they were ordered for stamping?

Good point Jamison. I realized the difference in dates, and thought maybe separate orders and lost production cards.

While INLAID chips were made at the factory (Burt Co) in Maine, HOT-STAMPED chips like these Havana Club ones would be hot-stamped at a business office anywhere in the US. Hot-stamp machines were rather simple little things, the size of a telephone booth. Businesses like Taylor would have an inventory of their mold design chips (like the T-mold) on hand at their local business place, and then they could hot-stamp the chips as orders came in. So maybe the T-mold base chips were made in 1948, and they were hot-stamped "Havana Club" in 1951.