As some of you know, the original Bally Mata Hari backglass featured Mata Hari holding a dagger, inscribed with the slogan of the Nazi SS, which translated means "My honour is called loyalty".

As you may have guessed, there was an outcry against the pinball machine (or at least it's backglass), which forced Bally to remove the slogan from future production models.

I've never seen exact figures, but I suspect less than 10% of the production run had the slogan. If you look around, you'll be very hard-pressed to find one for sale. I couldn't find one anywhere in my searches.

So, in the forum's opinion, what would the price premium be over the same condition "non-slogan dagger" M.H.?

Said another way, if a non-slogan M.H. were valued at $1000, what would it be worth if it had the slogan?

mata hari dagger (resized).jpg

All the E.M.s had the slogan, I believe.

I've never understood that either. Perhaps the slogan was in use during WWI? Or Bally had Nazi sympathizers in the art department?

Strange.

This has been my experience as well. Last convention had NONE on display.

So I guess the consensus is its not all that rare, but the ones with the slogan may still be worth an extra $100?

So maybe they ARE more rare than we thought! Google "MATA HARI PINBALL FOR SALE" and you won't find ANY with the slogan. If they were 50%, half of those should have it (approximately - yes, I've taken statistics in college).

That is exactly why I don't make any attempts at playfield touchup requiring artistic skill!

You want to take it on commission?

Its an enduring mystery that may never have any known ending, much like the Roswell incident. As a collector, I do think it adds a great conversation factor, and I would prefer it. Now would I pay an extra $100? Likely yes, if I was already paying top dollar for a clean machine.