Adding some more bizarre behavior is that chests out in the wild -inside stone towers- do not have a coin tinkling sound when you destroy them.

Only chests found in abandoned shacks, houses, etc.

I've tried now dozen+ other chests found in stone wall areas or stone tower remnants, and 100% they delete via work hammer like any other chest. So for some reason, it is only the chests found in wooden shacks that has this extra sound effect.