Like it or not, with the passing of time, even the rarest of chips will occasionally be found. I imagine there are alot of "rear gems" that were souvineers from a long ago trip that will hit the market in the next few years just because of the age of the current owners(who probably have no clue what they have in some old shoebox in the closet). estates passing down and being sold off are just a fact of life.

I think people are a liitle quick to say "hey, this guy has 2 boxes of these", or "These must be from a dig", just because knowbody knows who this person is.
I've only been aroun her for about a year, and I've already heard enough stories about questionable things done by high-end dealers/collectors to make me believe that certain people would say just about anything to keep people from bidding on a particular chip just so they could get a better deal on it.

As far as these chips are concerned, They were obviously used, so I seriously doubt that there's a whole box or two or pristine chips about to hit the market, and if they're from a "dig" what dig, and why wouldn't anyone know about them until now?

I think a much more likely scenario is they were spared from the grinder by some hughes exec. long ago...maybe a few of each at most, or less likely, they were souveneers from someone who had an extremely lucky night. The only way to really know for sure however, is to talk to the person who has them yourself. ask who he/she inherited them from, and what that person did for a living...etc.