Kirk,
Pricing on silver strikes in any market is based on supply and demand, and
also applies to casino chips of which both I collect & deal with. The major
factor in buying and selling any collectable is "condition" ....

#1 There are classifications of: Common - Hard To Find and Rare .....
Common: The everyday strikes or chips that everyone has
#2 Hard To Find: Strikes or chips that for the most part are Limited Editions
or low mintage strikes or chips
#3 Rare: Very Limited Edition or very low mintage of strikes or chips

Silver strikes are the hardest to keep any type of semi-accurate count on what
is out there, because over the past 5 years or so, many silver strikes have been
melted down for scrap silver price by collectors needing money or because they
are having a hard time trying to sell them, making Limited Editions, SR's and all
the promotional Limited Editions harder to find.

Now comes supply and demand as it always has been, both in Silver Strikes and
in casino chips. Example: The Bellagio Chinese New Years at one time brought
$90 to $100 because for everyone for sale, there was multiple people wanted it
causing bidding wars. Today, that same strike only goes for half or so, but it is
still considered a hard to find to rare strike. It is believed that the holiday series
of Bellagio strikes were limited to a mintage of 500 each, hence the hard time
finding them. Some Global Minting records were available for mintage numbers,
but not for all the strikes minted for casinos. Not all strike mintage information
was made available to the public.

Another factor in silver strike decline in collecting was for the most part, strikes
went from being .999 silver to most all going to silver clad, causing the interest
in collecting to decline along with a weakening economy, not allowing for a little
extra money in pockets to pursue collecting of most all types.

The number of collectors have declined, but there is still the pocket of collectors
who actively pursue the hobby, and seek out some of the older strikes and chips
that allows them to enhance their collections. Add the fact that some new casinos,
along with previous casinos who had strikes are re-introducing strike machines to
their casino floors, re-kindling some interest in silver strikes among the previous
collectors who backed off a little, and now the new machines have created some
new collectors, with some now looking for older strikes, bringing back supply and
demand to a degree.

Al Varelas / USMC
SS-1654

MY EBAY STORE:
https://www.ebay.com/str/usmc1965
Over 900 Silver Strikes - Casino Chips & Casino Memorabilia