for the following reasons:

1) We may never know the extent of them. I have seen many that vary as yours do.

2) As far as I was concerned the article was complete with the exception of the $1 Mint which I expect to have resolved within days.

I wouldnt know how the indentation occurred but would summise as you did that some 'foreign body' made contact with the chip after molding and while it was still soft. It was NOT a case, as can happen rarely, that a particle of something was stuck to the die or the die became faulty, as this would have resolved in an absence of cross hatching.

I dont know what the 'sparkly' things are either but I did note when looking, for example, at the Mint chips that the black/very dark blue's that I have to hand have lots of 'sparkly' things but the navy blue does not.

Regarding the color change my opinion is that the batch of clay ran out before Borland's 'order' had been fulfilled and a further batch was made which didnt match exactly.

Even with modern day chips, a slight color change can occur part way through a run or on re-order. Those varieties are not listed in TCR else Allan would be tearing his hair out and the book would be 5 volumes thick.

I am unaware (as it was an area I did not need to look into) whether Atlantic made all these chips in one run or whether Borland had to re-order.

The 'Poker God' may be able to enlighten us more though.

Thank you for showing the pic though. Do you have any 'Borland' hot-stamp chips. I am still looking for scans/evidence of some issues. I will be posting a request shortly for these.