Robert; If you have a copy of "Black's Catalog", I have a few of these "brown inlay" type chips illustrated on page 38 of my 1999 Edition A.C. Catalog from Brighton and Atantis. I've also seen $1 Resorts International chips and now the $1 Park Place chip you've shown with this condition.

The explanation that I've accepted for this condition is that they were discolored from being exposed over a long period of time (years) while sitting on a cash register, a shelf, inside a counter, to a combination of smoke, or grease and/or sunlight, or flourescent lighting in a bar, a restaurant, a candy store, a barber shop, etc....... similar to the first dollar bill a merchant took in on the first day of opening his store and having it framed and hung on a wall.

Most of the specimens I've seen have only exhibited this condition on one side which supports the theory of the exposed side being discolored... and the reverse (protected side) not being affected. Yours is the first I've seen with the discoloration on both sides..... which could simply mean it had been turned over at one point in time.

If anyone has any influence with Paulson, perhaps they could shed some light on this un-common phenomenon.