NONE of the $10 strikes ever came out of any machine without a capsule. The first $7 strikes from Harveys and Harrah"s in Lake Tahoe came out without a capsule for about the first 3 months and after the people who started collecting them the casino"s put them in capsules so they wouldn't be damaged when drooping into the tray. Harvery's from the very start would put a towel in the tray if you asked them to prevent the strikes fro getting scratches and nicks.
I remember being at Harveys the day they were installing the Very First Strike machine and was the second person to play it that day and I still have the 10 Train strikes I won that day. It turned out to be the beginning of me becoming a Strike Collector.
Walt