Speaking for myself, when I collect memorabilia I prefer to learn as much about it as possible. To me, it's not merely a tangible item meant to be hoarded away like a three-dimensional stock portfolio, but as a part of that genre's history. I consider it an embarrassment to show off a collection and not be able to relate a single factual story as to the origin of a piece.

This brings me to casino silver strikes. Every once in a while I see incorrect information used concerning silver strikes. Most of the time the falsehoods appear in auction descriptions. Sometimes due to the seller not knowing much about the coin and sometimes due to flat out lying through their teeth. The sad part is that the greater the fabrication, the quicker it's accepted as truth.

A quick example is the Treasure Island two-sided "Crossed Swords" silver strike. On more than two different occasions I've seen this strike touted as being a rare error which was pulled from the machine. This is completely untrue! Off the top of my head, I recall the token going into play in late May or early June of 1999. It was produced by GDC which went out of business in June, 1999. The ugly strike remained in play until around September, 1999. At that point, the marque "Skull & Crossed Swords" replaced it in the Treasure Island machines.

After the marque silver strike circulated, a few collectors surmised that THAT was the original style meant for the last batch produced by GDC instead of duplicating the same TI swords on both sides of the coin. While it was only speculation without confirmation by either Anchor Gaming, the defunct GDC, or Treasure Island slot management; it did seem feasible that GDC made the mistake since the design was labelled merely "crossed swords" and the marque description read "skull & crossed swords".

A more thorough history can be obtained by reviewing old Gaming Commission Approval lists and anyone who archived collector information like Gary Stathatos or Art Becker. Gary has/had posts stating when specific strikes went into play and when they ran out. I know because I contributed a lot of the news. I know Gary's getting out of the silver strike hobby, but I believe he still has information stored on disc dating back to 1998.

Personally, I think we owe it to future silver strike collectors to document as much factual information about the casino coins as we live it. Casinos, minting companies, and Anchor Gaming may not be willing to release exact information; but we can note when strikes went into play and how long they remained in play. If, for some reason, strikes disappear prematurely than we can try to figure out why based on asking immediate questions to the involved parties before they get a chance to forget or change management.

In the case of the Bellagio's "Chinese New Year", a collector had posted on Gary's webpage that the chinese writing was reversed. If you went to the atrium and looked at the conservatory's display in person you also noticed that the dragon's head was facing left while the silver strike had the dragon facing right. I immediately contacted the Bellagio slot manager and asked if he was aware of the reversed image. He said "no", but would have an Asian member of his staff look at the coin. I then called Anchor Gaming and asked the same question around two weeks later. It was then revealed that the photo negative of the artwork had been flipped over by mistake. It was stated that the Bellagio would be given credit for a future design. A few months later, the Gaming Commission approved a new "Chinese New Year" design for the Bellagio (around May 2000, I think), but it never materialize in play. The excuse as to why the new "Chinese New Year" silver strike was not used this year was that the Bellagio did not submit plans for the conservatory layout in time to Anchor Gaming.

While the "Chinese New Year" is indeed an error, it has not been corrected yet (it should be classified as an uncorrected error). It was also never pulled from the machines. Later, when I spoke again to the Bellagio slot manager, he decided not to reorder a corrected version in 2000 since the holiday date had already came and went. The Bellagio "Chinese New Year" silver strike was in play from late January 2000 to mid-February 2000. It is the only design that not released for a second time (Thanksgiving and Christmas styles were re-minted again without any changes to the designs. "Christmas Tree" did also appear as a copper rim, but "Thanksgiving Cornucopia" did not).

I hope these couple of examples will inspire one or two of you into taking a more active role in understanding what goes on behind-the-scenes with silver strikes. The coins should be thought of as more than shiny baubles. They are a part of casino history in the making and they should be treated as such.

Well, that is one man's opinion anyway.

KINGDINOSAUR