Well, I looked through my spare parts and lo and behold found another "generic universal" Stihl IIDA Japan chainsaw coil. This one supposedly came out of an MS290 so it is probably about a decade newer.
Unfortunately, it acted just line the other coil. Tried to rip my hand off on several occasions. Apparently this is a characteristic of the type of ignition module.
I guess the only way to find out if it has static timing or running advance is to get a drill motor and a timing light.