How To Price Original Composition
It is unfortunate that articles like this have to be written,but where there is money trading hands, there will always be fakes, frauds, and counterfeits.If you have purchased some silver and can’t get rid of that little voice in your head that keeps saying what if they are fake silver coins Below are 14 ways on how to spot fake silver eagles, bars, and bullion. We’ve ranked them from the least to the most effective methods in detecting counterfeits. (Most of these tests can also be applied to gold as well).1.
Magnetic TestWhile many fakes can easily pass this test, silver as well as gold bullion for that matter are both non-magnetic. If a bullion coin or bar sticks to a magnet you can easily throw this one out. Fakes that are produced with any iron or steel content in them will give off some magnetic attraction and identify itself as a fake. Metals that have a core of zinc, copper, lead or other non-magnetic metal will not be detected by this test.The stronger the magnet the better, a (grade N52) should be able to detect any iron or steel based metal. Be careful these magnets are extremely strong, fun to play with too! If it sticks it tricks.
You can pick them up on.2. Magnetic Slide TestContinuing on with magnets, another test you can to spot counterfeit silver is using a magnetic slide. Simple and easy to build, this is a fun way to instantly spot fakes without any complicated testing.How it works: even though silver is non-magnetic it has a property known as diamagnetism. This causes silver to repel when in contact with a magnetic field. So real silver moving down a magnetic slide will move slower than fake silver. A fake will move down the slide with no resistance.
Check out the video below, it’s actually pretty cool:Want one of these?3. The Ice TestCheap and easy to do, getting some ice from the freezer is a simple way to test both and bars for authenticity. All you need to do is place the ice on the silver and watch.The ice should begin to melt immediately, this is because silver is the best conductor of heat for all the metals. Below is a chart on thermal conductivity amongst popular metals. You will see that silver tops them all even including copper which is the most popular metal to use.
This makes it extremely useful in electronics and as an industrial metal, check out, and you will see how useful this metal really is!Check out how fast silver will melt ice compared to a regular pan:4. Dimensions TestThis type of test only applies to bullion coins from government mints. Since the most popular is the American Silver Eagle, we will take a look at that particular coin.
You can view the specs of the Silver Eagle below:The best way to take advantage of this is by using a good digital electronic scale. You will want to get a scale that measures at least to 2 decimal points in grams. Here is the one that I use, you can buy it on for about $11.Silver Eagles have a minted weight of 1 Troy oz.
31.103 grams. Another easy give away is the diameter of the coin, this should be pretty exact at 40.6mm.
To check this you will want a good set of calipers. A nice digital entry-level set is. If you want to get the top of the line calipers go with the brand Mitutoyo.When weighing your coins, be sure to account for a certain tolerance or variance in the weight. There is no official guideline given, but anything from 31.1g – 31.8g should be OK.
If you are getting readings of 30g or 32g+ that is reason for concern.Another tool to test for the dimensions of the American Silver Eagle is. It can correctly verify the weight, thickness, diameter, and shape of 4 different coins. It also can check for the Canadian Maple Leaf, the Austrian Vienna Philharmonic, and the US Silver Dollar (1840-1935). At $169 though, overpriced in my opinion, as a basic digital scale and good set of calipers will do the same. My at $49 is a much better deal 🙂5. Visual TestSilver has a distinctive look and feel to the coin not too shiny and not too cloudy.
Grab an old magnifier, the one’s that jeweler’s use, and take a good look at the coin. It’s always best to have an authentic coin or bar next to the one you are examining.
Mismatched surfaces, text spacing, crevices, or edges will stand out if it is a fake.Your tool of choice for this test is a handy magnifying glass or a jeweler’s loupe. A loupe if a special magnifying glass without the handle with higher magnification due to its special lens. These are essential to the world of, making it easier to grade the quality as well as identify counterfeit coins such as fake silver dollars.You can pick one up for about $5. Just be sure to get one at least 10x the magnification. Looking at enough real silver eagles, will give you a trained eye to easily spot the fakes.A dead giveaway is the edges of the coin or reeding. If there are no grooves or reeds, there is a 99.9% chance it is a fake since minted coins non-reeded (errors) are extremely rare.
Examine where the coin meets the rim and between the reeds, sometimes silver-plated coins will not fill these in and with a proper magnifying glass they will be detected.Below we have a real vs. Fake American silver eagle. By using the visual test, you can identify several red flags to weed out the counterfeit eagles.
Having the same minted year will help with minor differences that may occur between each strike. You can see font differences alone on both the obverse and reverse should be enough to spot the fake. (Ignore the glossy and mirror finishes).Here we have the reverse, again font differences stand out especially the tail on the “U”. The missing ‘veins’ on the feathers and leaves are another big giveaway on this fake.For silver eagles, pay special attention to the fonts: letters, numbers, upper/lowercase.
Note: the US mint changed the font in 2008 so 1987-2007 coins and 2008 – present have a different font. Also the ‘veins’ on the feathers and leaves on the back side.This is by no means exhaustive and depending on the producer, different fakes will leave different red flags. You can only assume as time goes by, these counterfeit rings will get better and better, so be diligent. Bleach TestAnother cheap and simple way to test for real silver vs.
Fake is to use some household bleach. Silver will tarnish very fast when exposed to any sort of oxidizing chemical like bleach. All you will need is just 1 drop, place it on the silver and if it begins to turn black then you can check it is silver. If your coin has numismatic value of any sort, this test may reduce its premium and you may want to perform another test. (Silver-plated items will also pass this test)7.
Ping TestThe great thing about silver is that it has a certain high-pitched ring to it when struck with another metal, many people refer to this as the ping test and it works fairly well. To do this, simply place one silver coin on your fingertip and take another between your thumb and forefinger and gently tap your coin. It should produce a nice high-pitched bell ring.The neat thing about this test is that silver rings at a certain frequency of about 6145 Hz.
Watch the video below to hear the difference between a real vs. Fake American silver eagle. Caveat: While the ping test is a great method to check for fake silver bars or coins, it is not foolproof. You will always want to combine this with the magnetic slide and dimensions test.8. Buy From Reputable DealersIf you are or bars on ebay or craigslist, there is a higher probability that you will encounter a fake. A little common sense will go a long ways!
While there may be deals to snatch up there, it may be best to go with a licensed & reputable dealer even if the premium is slightly higher. If you are looking to buy junk silver from ebay, you can get their melt values using our.Here are some silver scam identifiers on ebay, watch out for these fraud keywords:Silver-Plated – Like it says, this is any base-metal with a silver plating on the outside to fool the naked eye.100 mills – This word is deceptive, it is stating the measurement of the thickness of the silver plate. They can even state 99.9% silver since the plate is pure silver. Just another fancy word for silver or gold-plated.Silver Clad – Just read the definition of clad: to bond a metal to (another metal), especially to provide with a protective coat.
Yes, again silver-plated.Replica or Copy – If this word is in the title or description you can be sure that it is not pure silver.Nickel Silver – While this has a silver appearance, it has a composition of 60% copper, 20% nickel, and 20% zinc. You can read more about it.German Silver – Another term for nickel silver, see above.We recommend the following 3 online bullion dealers, just remember to do your own due diligence:Be sure to read our, and please leave feedback if you have bought from any of these dealers!9. The Specific Gravity TestThese next 4 tests are highly accurate in determining real vs.
The specific gravity test of silver is basically a ratio of densities and due to its chemical & composition makeup should equal 10.49, given by the formula below:This test will weed out those silver-plated or clad coins if they have a composition of some other base metal. You cannot change the density of metal and pure silver will always give a reading close to 10.49. The density (specific gravity) of the bulk material (whole object) is the weighted average of all the materials that compose the object. Therefore, as the article pointed out, by alloying (combining) metals with densities above and below silver in the correct ratio, the resulting density of the alloy (bulk object) can be made to exactly match that of silver. If such an alloy were made and then plated in pure silver, it would pass all surface tests and the density test. That said, the speed of sound in any material is a function of the material (and condition – thickness, temperature, boundary conditions etc.).
Unless the forger really knew his business and went to extreme efforts, he would not be able to get sound to behave in the alloy as it would behave in pure solid silver. The speed of sound and, for those who want to go the extra mile, presence and properties of various acoustic wave modes would change. Anyone capable of creating an alloy with the same density of silver as well as the same acoustic properties could make far more money at far less risk doing legal work.My Ph.D. Dissertation is on flaw detection using guided ultrasound.
So I feel confident that even a basic setup (basic price, not necessarily basic understanding) could identify pure silver vs an alloy every time. Great article, and a definite MUST READ for anyone new to precious metals.There are also a lot of counterfeit bullion products on Amazon. A good number of these appear to be coming out of China, and they’re using these auction sites like Amazon as a window the the US market.Although you may see well known brands like Engelhard, APMEX, JM, NORTHWEST TERRITORIAL MINT, SILVERTOWNE that are near exact replicas, don’t be fooled.Legit dealers will not sell these items as they appear on Amazon – with a poorly done listing. Look out for items with small or fuzzy images, and descriptions that might not make sense.Sad to say, but it is kind of like buyer beware these days when you buy bullion at places like eBay and Amazon. In some ways it is like a flea market, sifting through all of the listings.It is probably safest to buy from an established trusted dealer rather than these difficult to police secondary auction markets. Recently purchased 2014 Silver Eagle on the web and 1986 Silver Eagle from local dealer whom I’ve used since I started collecting about a year ago or two. The font’s are different as you show in your example “Fake vs Real Silver Eagles”.
The “O’s” are round on the 2014 and more of an Oval shape on the 1986. And the “U” is missing the tail on the 1986 just as you show.
I looked at the web-site which I purchased the 2014 and their 1986 S.E. Has a tail as well. The ones I purchased do not! Is it possible that both the coins I have are real?
Spoke with the dealer and he stands by his coin’s. Should I return them? I honestly don’t believe this gentleman would rip me off! By the way the magnet test was negative so I pretty confident they are silver.Thanks for the info. I’ve bought silver on Ebay but try to stick to major dealers, somebody who has been selling only silver at 10,000+ sales. I don’t put much faith in feedback, a lot of people are fooled. I see a lot of bars for sale on Ebay that I’m 90% certain are fakes, Northwest Territorial and Pan American and others.
First clue is is that nobody buys a hard plastic case just to sell a generic bar in. When they come from the mint they are usually vacuum sealed in sheets 5 or 6 wide then cut apart when reselling individual bars. Hard case=fake.
Second clue are fakes seem to have sharper corners-a smaller radius. Just compare pictures of different auctions and you can pick them out.Last year I bought a barber half dollar that I recently tested using whats called a sliding magnet test and it failed. Oh well.The sliding magnet test is simply using a small rare earth magnet(others don’t work), hold the coin/bar at a 45degree angle and let the magnet slide down the coin. If it slides fast its fake, slow well its either silver or plated copper. I know silver isn’t magnetic but its paramagnetic and resist a moving magnet. There are videos on utube demonstrating this.
With practice and the right magnet you will be able to tell silver from copper also. Every material has a set of physical and chemical properties associated with it. Any material identification will be based on one or more of these properties. This article covered the easiest to make use of.
However, every property adds confidence to the identity of the material especially if someone is trying to duplicate any one property. Duplicating multiple properties is non-linearly more difficult than duplicating just one. Some material properties not covered in the above article include, but are not limited to: electrical properties (there are many, don’t limit yourself to resistance), hardness, tensile strength, compression set, thermal expansion rate the list is massive. For those that really want to be sure without paying for a gas chromatograph and/or mass spectrometer, measure several properties at a given temperature (and pressure) then measure the same properties at multiple temperatures – ideally a large temperature range.
The more properties tested the more confidence you can have in the identity of the material; the more conditions under which the properties are tested (i.e. Temperature) additional confidence may be achieved.Keep in mind that to reproduce just the density and acoustic properties would be very difficult.
Reproducing them at multiple temperatures would be even more difficult. At this point, the forger would need to be operating on a massive scale to be profitable, they would need a lot of skill and equipment and in the case of coins they would have the attention of the secret service (for US coins) as soon as one was identified. For silver bars not issued by any government, they would have the FBI and/or any relevant international agencies to worry about.
So again, anyone that could produce such a perfect forgery would never be a forger to begin with; they would make a generous salary working in a wide range of legal capacities. The largest precious metal fraud I know of was the incident were tungsten bars were plated in gold and introduced to national gold stockpiles.
The tests outlined on this page would have identified those fake bars, its (temporary) success depended on getting the fake bars into the trusted stockpile and thus avoid having to pass all but the most cursory tests. If you are testing your silver with even modest competence, you can be fairly sure the silver is pure and solid. For coin collectors this is all but useless since it only applies to identifying the material the object is made of, not who made the object or when.
Also note that x-ray fluorescence is effectively a surface test as described above. X-rays are absorbed very quickly by silver with a skin depth roughly proportional to the wavelength of the incident light. In the case of x-rays the depth of material being tested is on the order of nanometers. A good plating will fool the x-rays. Therefore in order to test the interior you would need to damage the object. A full explanation is beyond the scope of this site and involves the electromagnetic properties of silver, the wavelength of light (x-rays) and the intensity of the light.
Look up extinction coefficient of light, skin depth, and complex index of refraction and you’ll get pointed in the right direction to understand more fully. Hello Dave,Thank you for your answer.I agree with you, but right I do not have the means to perform the underwater test. That is the reason why I wanted to make that too quick calculation. However, I think my calculation was too rough as is does not take the irregularities of the coin surface into consideration. Assuming a constant radius (official and easier to measure than the thickness) of 37,97 mm, (for a weight of 31,103g we have a volume of fine silver of 2,96 cm3) we obtain an average thickness of approximately 2,6 mm (versus 3,2 mm official, also average).
How To Find Original Price
I have difficulties to measure it because of the irregularities on the head and on the leaf. But I think it might be the explanation. I shall perform the underwater test later on. Interesting article and correct as far as weeding out fakes as silver and other metals or substances have specific properties which can perhaps be counterfeited, but only to a point, because it becomes more complex and expensive to produce such counterfeits vs the worth of the actual article. Interesting that tungsten is being used to produce counterfeits as it is not that cheap either because of it’s utilization in many different industries as well as being a strategic material for weaponry etc? Not to mention having to use some silver/gold to plate the fakes?
I am currently employed with the worlds highest renowned x-ray fluorescence analyzer company used throughout the world for everything from chlorine/sulfur content in crude oil used at refineries to the sector charged with U.S.customs agents testing for lead in toys imported from our most favored nation for trade RED CHINA. I will be bookmarking this page and bringing my silver rounds purchased from JM, Provident, and Scottsdale to my place of employment to asked one of our Maxene analyzer assembler/testing techs to analyze what the actual purity content is. The advanced X-ray Fluorescence in Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) will confirm the purity of.999 silver sample because this unlike other competing technologies provide the ability to detect (through software advances) variable substrate depths thereby confirming purity through an actual mean depth analysis and may be how the current large silver vendors are verifying there purity standards.
I am not sure these silver vendors are aware of this recent technology but it should be a consideration considering our analyzers run sample test in 10 minutes as opposed to one week chemical testing, maybe the deterrent is the cost, one bench top unit is $60,000. I am not allowed to see a customer lists however I do know that we manufacture optics components for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in the western part of this infiltrated country. JM Bullion, Scottsdale, and Provident may want to take notice. I will post the results in the coming week.X-RAY OPTICAL SYSTEMS. Hi Scott,We’re both right, in 2007 the US Mint made changes to the fonts on the silver eagle. From 1987 – 2007 the O’s were oval and the U had no tail. APMEX image is a 1987 coin which explains the difference.
The 2 coins I reference are 2013, which the fake lists, so i made sure to have the same year real coin. After 2007 the design changed that’s why I suggested having the same minted year of an authentic silver eagle coin when doing a visual test.I’ll try to clarify that more in the post above.Thanks for your comments. I just now received 3 coins purchased on Ebay. 2011(s) Silver Eagle, 2012(s), and 2013(s) All are ANACS MS 70 in slabs. They all appear slightly different in degrees of “shininess,” which is probably normal.
I inspected them with a cheap LED flashlight and magnifying glass and found no scratches or spots. What appears to be unusual is that when light lands on the 2013, Ms Liberty’s chest (breasts) take on a dark color that looks like a stain. As soon as the coin is removed from sunlight or flashlight illumination, this “stain” disappears. I noticed this in the seller’s listing photographs and questioned them about it.
I did not receive a reply. They offer “Hassle Free Returns,” which is the best program on Ebay. I like the coins and they passed all visual inspections you explained.
Thank you for that! As they are in sealed holders, other tests are not applicable. This is the Ebay listing and you can view it on that site, I believe. Obviously I am very new to coin collecting and trying to earn my education as inexpensively as possible.
Again, thanks for sharing your knowledge. And I purchased 40 oz of silver bullion from APMEX two weeks ago at $16.47 and free shipping.
I had it in one week with one of the round coin holders cracked. I called them and today I received a professionally packaged box with one new coin tube. I had to cost them at least $2.50. Thanks APMEX for the cheaply priced bullion and great customer service. A very cheap, and simple test for spotting non-silver fakes doesn’t work for pure silver plated is the ‘tracing paper’ test. This works because silver is the most reflective metal.Steps1 Get a genuine silver coin for comparison, and the coin for testing.2 Set both on a piece of dark/black cloth, or black paper, on a flat surface in a dark room.3 Spread out tracing paper, or a cloth handkerchief, over both coins.4 Shine a LED torch / bulb onto both.Both coins should appear the same through the paper/cloth, as both should reflect the same amount of light back.
If the “for testing” coin appears darker, it’s because it’s not reflecting the same amount of light, and it’s not silver.