"The former workers who made chips for Bill Borland, say they didn't make these?"

Thats not what one of them told me. He told me Bill spent hours making these chips.

"Lets not forget that the die to make the imprint in the center of the chips, is not cheap"

Paul-Son charges $120 today for a hot stamp die and good customers can get the charges waved.
They use die charges as a profit center.

I just had hot stamp dies made last week for the Celebrity Poker Showdown gift chips in NJ, the dies cost $12 each and part of that would have been an add on from TJW. Cost to overnight them was more than the dies. Cheap, you decide in 1990 dollars.

"I wonder if they could have been sweepers?"

You would have to make dies or used existing dies for floor sweepings.

The chips are, what they are and all the speculation in the world will not change them.