Thanks for stating exactly what I said! They STARTED IN 2002....the Gaming commission required the .999 to be on the silver in October 1997. So new dies had to be made in 1997. They started moving to .5 in 2002. So from 1997 to 2002 (and up to 2007 according to Sean) they were still .60. Why do you interpret Sean's statement to mean that the new dies in 1997 switched to .5, even though he said they started switching to .5 in 2002? I believe he meant that once the decision was made in 2002 to switch to .5 silver, from then on any new designed strikes that required a new die was switched, but if in 2002 they were still using an existing die, it remained .60. That's why he said they switched from 2002 up to 2007. That means some strikes made between 2002 and 2007 were still .60.

Solve your skepticism yourself, bust out a few of your late 1990's strikes with the .999 on the silver, punch out the center, and weigh them. Easy solution, you have enough old commons to punch out one or two. I will do it myself and post a picture later. Dang Jeff, making me punch out a strike to make you happy.