Tom,

Welcome to silver strike collecting. There are several good websites about strikes. One to start with would be the Silver Striker's club site at www.silverstrikers.com.

The $200 strikes were typically won by trading in 20 of the "current" $10 strikes at the cashier. Some casinos had a $200 strike that had the same theme as the $10 strike (e.g. Palms Playboy, Military, Seattle Slew or Funny Cide series or Nugget Perfect Then/Now series or Barbary Coast 25th Anniversary series) but more often than not, they didn't really match the $10's. Not all casinos offered the $200 strikes and even those that had them at one time didn't always offer them. Unfortunately, although popular with collectors, IGT has decided to discontinue the $200 strikes, so you won't be seeing any new ones and I doubt that any of the casinos still have them in stock to trade.

The old and new machines are very different in mechanics and in payout. The old machines were designed by Anchor Gaming (which IGT bought). They would allow the player to win multiple strikes at once (up to five I think it was, if the reels lined up right - someone else can correct me if I'm remembering wrong). You could win by playing just a quarter if you hit on the center line, although two or three quarters would give you a chance to win on the top or bottom line too. Avid players/dealers claimed that on average, it would cost about $14 to win a strike. The problem with these old machines was that they held only about 50 strikes and were constantly jamming so they required a lot of attention from the slot attendants to unjam or refill. Also, when you cashed out, it paid out in quarters only, not paper tickets. Many of the casinos apparently didn't like these problems too much, and it was hard for IGT to get parts they were no longer making the machines...so it was difficult for those casinos that actually wanted more of these machines to get them from IGT.

IGT designed the new machine to overcome the jamming issue. The strikes are now dispensed from one of several columns at the top of the machine vs. the old hopper fill approach. The plastic capsules are larger and seem to scratch more readily as they slide out from under a heavy column of other strikes, but the machine doesn't jam up. Unfortunately, IGT decided that you can only win a strike if you play three quarters. They also eliminated the multiple strike payouts, which has disappointed a lot of collectors. On average, people say it costs them more to win a strike (perhaps $15-16), and my own perception is that there are more pronounced tight and loose periods. I've only experienced the tight streaks...but others have reported better luck. While you can get paper cash out tickets, you can't add any quarters to ensure your last spin is a three quarter spin in order to have a shot at winning a strike. The new machines are more glitzy, are labelled Silver Strike, and shot out that name when you win -- so maybe they'll increase the number of players and collectors out there, which would be good for this community.

Maybe more than you wanted to know....

Please consider joining our club if you get into this. The application is on the website.

--Norm