approval (on the basis that the chips seeking approval were going to have serial numbers).
Ive had several other designs with 000 numbers. When I enquired, it seemed that usually only 3 to 5 were made.
ie one for the gaming board, one or two for the casino (if requested), one for chipcos 'files', maybe one for the chipco salesman (if there was one - they dont have them any more but would have done in 1997), maybe one for the 'act' depicted on the chip to approve.

Given that this chip was never issued, its possible that the one on the left was a similarly made sample without serial number.

Im curious that while the one on the right has clear notching from the chipco machine, the notching on the left looks different.

That said, I would speculate that these both originated from the salesman at the time (which would have been Bee Estes) and it is possible they passed through Mr Trimble's hands at some point I dont know whether he would recall if these two specifically were in the 'case'.