I have never had the process of making the ceramic Chipcos described to me but had always just assumed there was some kind of printing process onto the surface of the chip before firing. Is there really some printed material inlaid into the surface as with earlier clay and composite chips? Since we all know Chipcos can lose their color either due to wear at the edges or from transfer to other surfaces over time, how could there be a colored inlay involved? In your scan, there are several Chipcos from the batch that was made in the 1990's where due to improper resin formulation, entire lots of chips began to fade and lose their images. This would also imply that the images were not on an inlay but on the surface of the chip.

Maybe someone on the board could post something about Chipco construction.