How to tell 1920 silver from 925 to 500?

[LukeStacker]

1920 is the year of so much pain for British silver coins. I've seen that millions were made in 925 before the switch to 500 where millions more were made. Whenever I come across a 1920 coin I always feel it is 500, and sometimes if I'm not sure I put it in the 500 pile to be sure. 

The best way I've determined it is 925 or 500 (without a silver tester) is to drop it on the table and listen to the sound. What are other people's ways to quickly work out if it's 925 or 500? Thanks. 

[Happypanda88]

I think it was only the small denomination silver coins (i.e 3d and 6d) that were produced in both types of silver alloy (.500 and .925) in 1920.

The larger coins were all .500 silver I believe.

In any case, sterling silver (925) tends to be whiter in appearance. Whereas 500 silver has a more greyish tone. 

[LukeStacker]

Yes I believe this to be true. Also I find once you handle the 925 silver coins the 500 feels almost like play money. 

[modofantasma]

After checking through a few you do get a feel for them and the sound they make. A case of 'hmm... this one seems a bit strange' compared to the others lets investigate further even without checking the date. I had a bulk load of half crowns that came in capsules recently and out of 270 I noticed the 4 that were not 50% just as I was whipping them out of the capsules whilst watching a few videos not specifically reading the dates on them all carefully. 

[sovereignsteve]

4 hours ago, Happypanda88 said:

I think it was only the small denomination silver coins (i.e 3d and 6d) that were produced in both types of silver alloy (.500 and .925) in 1920.

The larger coins were all .500 silver I believe.

👍

[SidS]

To my knowledge, happy to be corrected though, only shillings and florins of 1920 were all base silver.

3d, 6d and 2/6d can be either. Generally I go on the strike. The sterling being softer, the strike seems richer, deeper to me. I believe on the half crowns the reverse is slightly more concave on the sterlings (as it seems on the pre-1920s) than the .500 silver.