Really? Hand Painted?? Is the surface of the strike smooth or in relief of some sort?

I'm not doubting your word here, but it does seem like a nearly impossible task to hand paint each one of these, especially in the quality and detail that I see on the strike.

Is it possible that the original art was hand painted and that the strikes themselves are litho'ed or something?

Can you send a HUGE scan of just the center of the strike? I'd love to see it.

I was looking at El Cortez strikes on eBay the other day and noticed the coloring on some of them and was wondering about the process.

Greg