Tiger Stripe Silver Dollar Impostors?

Looking for some feedback on a situation I encountered not too long ago. Was at a reputable lfs that I frequent just killing some time and scoping out some new arrivals. This store occasionally gets in some cool freshwater oddballs and for the first time out of my many years of visiting I saw that a trio of "tiger stripe" silver dollars were in stock. The trio were palm sized and pretty beefy. However upon inspection things just seemed to stick out to me as not right. The stripes themselves looked disjointed, unconnected, and blotchy. Realizing that all fish patterns are subject to individual variations I didn't think too much until I noticed the fishes' poor health, laborious looking actions, and stressed appearance. Mind you all other tanks in the this store are ultra pristine including this tank and all other tank mates the trio were in with looked to be in tip top shape. Once again I reminded myself that maybe these fish had a rough time in transit to the store, maybe they are a fragile batch, maybe they are still settling in, etc. Then I noticed some strange indentations, missing scales, and fin damage at the top and bottom of the fish near the midsection. My hunch is that these fish were regular silver dollars, sedated to a degree, restrained/gripped, and then tattooed much like the mollies and platys floating around but then being turned around and slapped with not a ten or twenty dollar price tag but an 85 to 100 tag. I went back a few days later and the trio had perished (actually one was left barely clinging to life). The store's owner is a legit guy but freshwater is not really his wheelhouse or passion so it would not be surprising if a unscrupulous importer fooled him with this. I was wondering if anyone else has come across this with silver dollars at all? Shady shady shady......

Unfortunately by the time I returned two were dead, last one was on his way out. Wish I could have gotten pictures as they looked very suspect to say the least.