In the past, mold names were only given to chips that had embossed (or incused) three-dimensional edge mold designs. Those names came from manufacturers, distributors, and sometimes collectors, that put together edge mold guides (mainly, Herz, Borland, Eisenstadt).

The ChipGuide ended up taking a different approach. A lot or even most modern plastic chips do not have 3D edge molds, would be traditionally classified as Plain-mold. If all those chips were kept together, most chips on the ChipGuide would be listed as Plain-mold. It would be difficult to search for these chips by edge mold design.

Because of this, the designs used around the edges of these chips were given mold names (as listed on the Chip Mold Guide). Some people have argued that this does not makes sense, but in the context of the ChipGuide it seemed to make sense.