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I went to Habitat for Humanity and got 4 cylinders for $4 total.
One of them was a Best Interchangeable Core Mortise Cylinder. I started picking on it not expecting to open it any time soon. It opened to control within a minute or two.
When it dropped out I was not as impressed with myself when only 3 of 6 pins were populated.

Why would someone populate a cylinder like this? By skipping every other pin and going all the way back to the 6th pin they made a stupid easy lock to open and require a long key as well.

That core was used during construction and was switched out upon completion.
Also why it is painted green.
usually the middle pin is for the control lug and the other two act as a change key, some times master keyed.

Partially correct, it is a construction core. I have a dozen of those light green ones.
However all pin stacks are used for control, master and operating in SFICs.

Jeff is correct. The control lug on SFICs run the entire length of the cylinder though they only show and the back half.

This means that every pin stack has to be picked to the control shear line to open versus just 1-2 in other IC core models.

http://www.crypto.com/photos/misc/sfic/

Thanks guys.
Are the top plugs friction fit so that I can find a second one and create a 6 pin lock?

Yes, they are really thin sheets of brass that are friction fit into place.

If you want I can pin it up fully for you since you need special tools to work on SFIC cores.

That would be great.