The distributor buys blanks from the manfacturer.
The distributor makes a die for the hot stamp and stamps it on the chips.
The hot stamp actually belongs to the buyer, as he is charged for making it. He could ask for it, but very few do.
1. In this case, plain mold, DiSq, and dots could have all come from the same distributor over the years, Rigdon & Co in Cincinnati. Plain was an open mold, DiSq was an open mold for a number of years and Rigdon sold Dots at one time.
2. The hot stamps are a common font and any distributor could have re-created the same hot stamp.

When Mark and I bought the HCE records in FL, we got about 400 hot stamp dies. A friend just bought the O'Neil records and got 100's of hot stamp dies for dice and chips.