So I went to my local jewellers

[matrawr]

Basically the purpose of this post is to check my local jewellers is to inform people and to check if the jewellers has done a proper job. So I bought these bars from eBay which I know is a risk so I asked around to see if there was a test they could do now they all differ in weight from 31g to 31.5g which he said was a red flag but he did the acid test so here's the photos what's your verdict people? Real silver or am I being paranoid in my lack of trusting people

[HawkHybrid]

I vote magnet test and sg test.

... yes I am paranoid 

 

HH

[matrawr]

Haha thanks HH I've done the magnet test tried the sg test but my scales go haywire when I put a container of water on it after taring and was quite difficult to prevent the silver touching the bottom but will give it another go and will post the results if I can get it to work.

[HawkHybrid]

remember that scales maximum weight is likely all inclusive.

for example when I use my 100g max scales, I weigh out

~90g of water plus container so when I add my <5g floating

silver oz it stays below 100g all inclusive. yes it's a bit fiddly

trying to float 1oz bars in <90g of water. (I recommend new

scales to be 200g+ max weight)

 

HH

[matrawr]

Thanks HH I submerged the bars inside a plastic cup so there was a little more ground clearance so before taring the cup and water weighed just over 200g. So results after the sg test are the bars by my calculations vary from 10.4 to 10.7 would that be correct?

[Webster]

3 minutes ago, matrawr said:

Thanks HH I submerged the bars inside a plastic cup so there was a little more ground clearance so before taring the cup and water weighed just over 200g. So results after the sg test are the bars by my calculations vary from 10.4 to 10.7 would that be correct?

10.5 is silver, think you are in the green. Good tip for sg test I use a hair net

[matrawr]

I used a thread of cotton....? From what I read silver is 10.4-10.6?

[HawkHybrid]

anything above 10 is sufficient verification.

didn't think of using a net.

 

HH

[matrawr]

So forgive me if I ask a silly question but how accurate is the sg test? 

[Danny-boy]

So forgive me if I ask a silly question but how accurate is the sg test? 

As accurate as the tester and the method.

Done properly, the SG test is practically infallible.

[matrawr]

2 minutes ago, Danny-boy said:

As accurate as the tester and the method.

Done properly, the SG test is practically infallible.

As I said the bars on their own weighed from 31g (or just under) to 31.5g and submerged was 3 to 3.1 and all my calculations came in around 10.4 to 10.7 would you say that is sufficient?

[HawkHybrid]

15 minutes ago, matrawr said:

So forgive me if I ask a silly question but how accurate is the sg test? 

 

most fakes are copper based. to pass the sg test requires

a heavy metal in the mixture to increase the overall density.

this is both more expensive and may pose other problems.

 

your results are fine for silver. (copper based fake submerged

should weigh at least 3.4g or 31g/9)

 

HH

 

[matrawr]

Thanks for your feedback people. ☺

[YourWelcome]

So how did it go?

[matrawr]

Well from my tests I'm convinced it's genuine seeing as I've got bars I've purchased from an online dealer so can check.

[Pete]

I thought acid tests on silver generated a colour which I cannot see on your pictures.
Also, an acid test only determines the nature of the surface so a thick plated bar would pass an acid test.
SG is the best check if in doubt and other failsafe tests would cost more than the value of the bar.

[matrawr]

Well Pete when I phoned the jewellers up he said what he would do so he made a slight cut then put acid on them which I've looked at and you can barely tell anything has happened to them and I carried out the sg test which they appeared to come up fine.

[Luriya]

At least it was silver. My friend got scammed by a gold piece. You can imagine how much he paid for on ebay to find out it was fake. Hard to trust people nowadays

[matrawr]

Agreed Luriya I only go there if I can get a good deal.

[Murph]

18 hours ago, matrawr said:

Agreed Luriya I only go there if I can get a good deal.

The problem is the better the deal the more likely it is to be fake!

That's why I don't often buy from ebay unless it's something I can't procure easily elsewhere or it's a numismatic. 

[matrawr]

I don't normally buy off anyone I usually make contact with them check rating images etc and if there is a problem with something I buy there's ebay buyers protection.