The link on silver strike composition that David gave me yesterday didn't seem to mention that there are at least three different weights for the $20 silver strike tokens. It seems to depend on age, and maybe what state they were made for.

Here is a scan of the three different weight tokens I've found. All appear to be solid with spot silver plate. The Nugget is from Nevada, and the other two are from Atlantic City. Notice the difference in thickness of the three in the edge view. The lightest is the thinnest. The one in the center is from Caesars, Atlantic City and doesn't say silver or .999 on either side! It's also plain edged, not reeded as are the other two. All seem to be spot gold-plated, although only the Harrahs, Atlantic City mentions "HGE", for heavy gold plate.

Now that many of these are worth more for the silver in the token than collector value, metal content is starting to be of significance. Anyone have any comments? Is it safe to just take the token weight (without the plastic capsule) as representing the amount of .999 silver? If so, the heaviest of these $20's have 25% more silver than the lightest! Note that differences are not just variables to be expected in the minting process; I found all mine fit in these three categories, plus or minus about 1%.

Maybe gaming didn't bother to control metals as they were all supposed to be redeemable for face and were never intended to gamble with (don't have to be handled by coin rejectors in the machines).