Why limit yourself to just one catalog? The more information you have, the better.

Since you asked about it, Art Becker's catalog is the least expensive, and the most up to date. In fact, it's updated daily. The greedy speculators dislike it because he has realistic prices, instead of inflated ones. There is a laser printed version, and a CD version. He is the only author who has a comprehensive silver strike web site. He's also the only author who has listed the over 100 copper ring varieties.

Richard Anderson's catalog is attractive, but very expensive, and is about a year out of date (there might have been a supplement, but, if so, by now it's out of date, too). Inkjet printing isn't as clear as laser printing.

Howdy's catalog is also attractive, expensive, and a year out of date. Some collectors say his prices are too low! The $10 denominations are in one section, with all the rest in another. There are some quality problems, with pages falling out, due to insufficient binding, hard to read small type, and some casinos out of alphabetical order, making them difficult to find. Inkjet printing isn't as clear as laser printing. His web site hasn't been changed in a year, or more, and it provides no actual information.

Marv's catalog is about two years out of date, and has the most errors of all of them. Of course, no catalog is error-free. The use of color in the recent edition is more confusing than helpful. All the denominations are lumped together, by casino, which is confusing, especially when some logo varieties only apply to certain denominations. Inkjet printing isn't as clear as laser printing. Marv's catalog was the first, but he has apparently stopped publishing it, and links to his web site are dead. He promised a comprehensive CD a couple years ago, but hasn't mentioned that since, either.

Janice O'Neal publishes a comprehensive up-to-date list, but it doesn't have a price guide. I understand she leaves out some designs for political reasons, or at least said she doesn’t believe that some $10 strikes should be listed.

A year or so ago, Peter Van Der Kar said he was going to publish a catalog, but nothing has been heard of that since.

Talk is cheap, and there are always occasional messages about people getting together to publish a catalog, but those projects quickly die, once the participants find out how much actual work there is involved.

You'll probably have people tell you that the price guides are just what the name implies. They give you an idea of whether a strike is ordinary, or extra valuable. That's because strike values are constantly moving targets. You can get other ideas of what a silver strike is worth by checking dealer lists and Ebay auctions. Even so, Ebay auctions, especially for the better items, are frequently ego battles, with buyers paying often idiotically high prices, in order to win at any cost. No serious price guide author would take those one-off ego sales into consideration. Other strikes, like many of the current $200 strikes, are being touted by speculators, and their current sales prices aren't great indicators of true long-term value, either.

Any catalog is better than none, and you probably can't go much wrong, no matter which one you select, if all you want is a checklist of which strikes have been issued. The more information you have, the better. Thus, the more catalogs you buy, the more about silver strikes you’ll probably end up knowing. Paying thousands of dollars to visit and gamble in Las Vegas, and then skimping on catalogs, doesn’t make much sense.

John