That IS rather curious..
Perhaps some employee of Allied or Republic back in the day managed to "snatch" themselves a one-of-a-kind souvenir when no one was looking..?..
So if I read RAH's words correctly (some of them were a bit confusing), the master used for this is brand New, but the 4k scan --- of low/medium--quality (but the best available) elements --- from which said master was derived is possibly of several+ years' vintage?