Where do you get off telling people who have spent years of their lives learning (computer technicians) how much their time is worth?
At the same stop they did, by having the same skills / certs required for that kind of work. Come on, you're seriously trying to argue that a few mouse clicks is worth a couple hundred bucks just because some people don't know any better? It's a bad analogy. Not all techs charge that much for simple virus removal. Just like taking your car to an auto mechanic. If you can shop around and get a better price, you don't go to the guy asking more for the same work, but somehow he stays in business, because a lot of folks don't know any better.
Now, I know you are going to say that line of reasoning doesn't hold water because smoothie is the only one making these, and you're right. But for the cost of his 1/2oz silver round, I can walk into my local coin shop and get 2oz of something else that is more likely to hold collector value to people other than fringe crypto nerds. All I am saying is that people who might not know better should be aware that they are mostly paying for the coolness factor rather than any actual collectors value. If buyers are cool with that, then buy away!
Yeah, and those same companies would probably print the exact same design for someone else. They don't have to be just tamper-evident, they have to be reasonably unique.
Maybe I really am stupid, but why? Seriously. The way I understand it, all the tamper proof hologram does is protect the key to the LTC that is 'on' the physical silver piece. Does it really
have to be unique for some reason I can't see, or did you just choose the wrong words for that? I can agree that it is more costly, and more neat-o, but am I missing something that would make it really, absolutely required?