Spotting Counterfeit Silver Coins

[SilverStorm]

12 minutes ago, scotwasp said:

Thanks guys, I’m mainly stacking, as I don’t yet have the experience for collecting ( although I have made 5 or 6 auction purchases of collectibles) , but will take your opinions on board.  
can I ask, what is an SG dental floss test? I have downloaded the ping test app after reading some earlier stuff and am practicing a bit with that. 

What @ArgentSmith is referring to is the specific gravity (or SG for short) test using dental floss as the string to hold the coin or bar in water without touching the sides of the container.  Search on this forum, there should be instructions on how to do this.  Or search on YouTube for a video demonstration on how it's done. 

[Junior]

3 hours ago, ArgentSmith said:

the resonance of a coin  is VERY specific and is effected by not only the purity of the metal or alloy but by the exact width depth and contours of a coin

I was planning on attaching a video of me ping testing the fake silver coins and a real silver coin. The forum only allows like 9.7 MB and the 19 second video I took was like 24 MB. I would upload a video if someone knows how to lessen the video quality so the video file is not so big. 

[scotwasp]

Thanks Guys

- appreciate the help

 

[LawrenceChard]

On 05/12/2021 at 18:36, ArgentSmith said:

Isn't platinum the densest element? miles away from gold in terms of SG.

 

No:

21.45 g/cc	Platinum	Pt	78
22.4 g/cc	Iridium	Ir	77
22.6 g/cc	Osmium	Os	76

But close.

I'm not sure whether there are some denser recently discovered, or short-lived elements.

 

[Darr3nG]

On 05/12/2021 at 23:52, scotwasp said:

what is an SG dental floss test?

With thanks to @BackyardBullion

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GH6h6GhEDjA&t=410s

[ArgentSmith]

On 06/12/2021 at 02:51, Junior said:

I was planning on attaching a video of me ping testing the fake silver coins and a real silver coin. The forum only allows like 9.7 MB and the 19 second video I took was like 24 MB. I would upload a video if someone knows how to lessen the video quality so the video file is not so big. 

Maybe upload to YouTube and post a link?

[paulmerton]

On 06/12/2021 at 02:51, Junior said:

I was planning on attaching a video of me ping testing the fake silver coins and a real silver coin. The forum only allows like 9.7 MB and the 19 second video I took was like 24 MB. I would upload a video if someone knows how to lessen the video quality so the video file is not so big. 

kdenlive is a good option. It's a full blown video editor, but it's free. If you drag a single video into its timeline, you could either:

• trim it until it's short enough;
• render the output with a different video codec (some will naturally be smaller than others);
• reduce the quality settings until the output file is small enough;
• reduce the resolution until the output file is small enough;
• or a combination of all of the above.

[LawrenceChard]

On 06/12/2021 at 00:00, ArgentSmith said:

It's not as difficult as some people try and make out. Are you collecting or stacking? As @SilverStorm says you should conduct more than one test if possible @LawrenceChardadvised use common sense. Is the item the sort of item likely to be faked? For Gold bullion you are probably better off with a competitive dealer, for Silver bullion you should avoid commonly faked coins at least until you know the look and feel of the coins you're stacking.

Tests you can do, magnet for the ali baba stuff. weigh the coin on a set of cheap scales measuring in 0.01g, then measure with callipers, weight coupled with dimensions effectively gives you the SG. Or do an SG test with some dental floss. No one here seems to rate the ping test ap except me, the resonance of a coin  is VERY specific and is effected by not only the purity of the metal or alloy but by the exact width depth and contours of a coin, also completely non destructive if done properly.

This forum has to be far safer than ebay for private sales, if someone was passing fakes here I pretty sure they would be rumbled PDQ.

Good luck on your journey.

 

Good sound advice!

[Bumble]

This video shows how to use the phone app Bullion Test to do ping tests really accurately. I once found a fake sovereign using this app. It was a jeweller's copy fake, very similar to a genuine coin, and you wouldn't have noticed the difference just judging it by ear.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEqV7LAgaL4

 

[ArgentSmith]

3 hours ago, Bumble said:

This video shows how to use the phone app Bullion Test to do ping tests really accurately. I once found a fake sovereign using this app. It was a jeweller's copy fake, very similar to a genuine coin, and you wouldn't have noticed the difference just judging it by ear.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEqV7LAgaL4

 

Interesting, obviously same dimensions? I assume the jeweller's copy was a lower ct?

[Bumble]

It turned out to be 21 ct. Looked genuine, at least to me, except the colour was a little off - just slightly too yellow. It was a 1925, which is a notorious year for copies. The frequency lines that showed on the Bullion Test app were very nearly correct, just a tiny bit off.

[ArgentSmith]

excellent, thanks

[papi1980]

Apart from the magnet, weight and calliper measures, I’m using also a ping test app called Precious Coin Tester. 

surprisingly accurate for both silver and gold (I played one day changing coins and testing with different types)

hope that helps

[Junior]