Skip, I have to agree with you about the $200's with the Gold HGE overlay! If you remember a couple of years back, they came out with the Colorized 1 Oz. Walking Liberty and State Quarters. The color was injected directly into the silver and they looked nice, but the novelty didn't last and the collectors rejected them! I feel the same thing is going to happen to the new $200's. I thought at the convention and at the Silver Strikers Forum, IGT stated that they had no control over what the Casino's did with their Silver Strikes, once the Designs were okayed by the NGC. Now it sounds like IGT is telling them what to design and how to design them!! I am a collector of $200's and I am not thrilled about the painted $200's. Remember, these $200's are being collected mainly by the members of this club and not many of the general public. There are approximately 100 - 200 collectors of $200's which means we do have a say about the way they are minted, but we have to be careful on how we voice our opinion!! It is not like the $10 strikes that are in the machines more for the general public as a souvenier from their vacation to Las Vegas. I am seeing and hearing from different casino's that they realy don't want to be involved anymore with the silver strike programs because it is getting to be too much of a PROBLEM. Yes you do have certain casino's that are Silver Strike collector friendly, but remember, they can't build $3 Billion Casino's on 650 members!! Only my opinion.

Jerry Sacco SS#673