Check out the auction below. The seller basically says Silver Strikes are sold only in gift shops, never used on gaming tables, and the gift shops gave a ten dollar buy back guarantee. I emailed the seller to tell him that these actually came out of silver strike machines, they ARE valid at gaming tables (I have personally witnessed a guy use a silver strike at the Stardust before it closed, as a ten dollar bet on blackjack and it was accepted) and that they are approved by the Gaming Commission. Check out this WORD FOR WORD RESPONSE I GOT:

"Sorry Dave, you are wrong about the strikes. These ten dollar tokens were sold in the gift shops, thus several designs including sets were made by enterprising casinos. They were sold with a guaranteed ten dollar buy-back. There are, literally thousands of these puppies and all in mint condition. Have you ever seen one that had been abused, scratched, marred or disfigured in any way? If you have one, send a photo to me, I would like to see it.

They were never used on the tables and would never fit into a slot machine, they are too heavy and too thick, it would have taken a special coin acceptor; that was not likely to happen.

The Nevada Gaming Commission "probably" approved the production of ten dollar strikes for non-gaming use. They were produced by several different mints, you will note "G" "CT" and "S" on some of the tokens, that denotes the mint that produced them. The Tropicana has the letters "GDC" which may have been the initials of the designer along with the producing mint.

How do I know? I was a peddler in he '70's, '80's and 90's. Nevada was part of my territory. Over the years I had collected many of these strikes.

My next listing will be a Dansco Album holding 45 different strikes.

Thank you for the email and Best Rgrds, Harmon"

I referred him to the silver strikers web site to show him real live pictures of a real live strike machine. All I can think is that his memory has faded and he is very confused...I wonder how many silver strikes he got in the 70s and 80s???

Dave.
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