I'm glad to see it might be possible that my suggestion to Rick Ronca, made over a year ago, could finally be used! At the end of his talk at the 2001 CC>CC convention I'd approached him about not only putting out a finite number of silver strikes, but also about the concept of a finite length of time.

This enables collectors to pick up new designs every 4 to 6 months at casinos instead of finding the same strikes in play for a year or two straight. It gives out-of-town strike collectors more of an incentive to travel to Las Vegas more often. It also handles the greedy speculators in a way that they cut their own throats. Because the more they play and monopolize the machines, the higher the minting number for the strike designs. Thus reducing their market value.

It has been a concept used for high-end collectible makers, like the Bradford Exchange, for decades. How many times do you recall hearing "Limited to a certain number of firing days"?

Since the dealer market is getting out of control for strikes (i.e. paying people to play until the limited number of strikes are gone), this is the best way to handle the current problem while keeping the hobby fresh. Just change out silver strike designs 2 or 3 times a year. The actual number of strikes is then determined by the amount of play a machine gets during that 4 to 6 month time frame.

KINGDINOSAUR