"Authenticating" Modern Bullion.

Bullion minted by countries usually does have a face value. An American Silver Eagle does in fact have a $1 face value, a Canadian Silver Maple has a face value of $5 etc... but that is a technicality and not intended to be used as currency. There IS limitations on private purchase and movement of currency across national borders...if I remember right, Canada has a $25 limit per package of coinage that can legally move across the border into the U.S. so yes there are restrictions. How precious metal suppliers get around this law is beyond me, but in the private sector, moving large quantities of silver coinage can be problematic.

Government bullion is minted to very fine tolerances in terms of size and weight. Shortly after my first gold purchase, I invested in a high quality scale and a pair of nylon calipers. By carefully weighing and measuring the physical dimensions of my coins and then comparing those values against the official published weight and dimensions of the same coin available from the various government mint web sites, I've been able to reliably authenticate my own collection with a high degree of confidence. This same process works just as well for government silver bullion, too.

If you buy from a reputable country mint (USA, Canada, AUS, GB ect) you know exactly what youre getting. For their bullion versions if you buy from a site like Provident Metals, APMEX, silver towne again you can be confident in what you buy.

Its when you start buying from places that are cheaper than everywhere else or deals to good to be true that red flags should be going off. Private mints like englehard are very reputable, but their products are faked. Buying from the same sites listed above greatly reduces the chance of a fake. Personally I stick to bullion from national mints and stay away from the privately minted stuff but there is a lot of private stuff out there thats exactly what it says it is.

It is typical of governments to put a face value on a bullion coin that is way less than the current bullion value but if the price of bullion drops below that of the face value, they back-pedal like mad so as to "not get taken" by all the people cashing in their bullion coins. :-/

Anyone traveling that far should get a $100 credit at the local hotels, bars, and restaurants.

I find non US bullion to be quiet cheap at times. Most of my recent non US coins purchase has been below spot. Anything below spot looks like a good deal to me.

$50 Marshall Island coins are pure silver. Which ones do you have Ed?

Bullion is Bullion is Bullion
Although this is straying from topic you need to be sure to recognize Coins from Bullion.
Bullion is precious metal nothing more, nothing less.
Purity can be tested by many methods and all tests have some level of certainty. Weight, Ring Test(Silver Only), and Acid Testing, the later being the best.
By acid testing Bullion you can, with a high level of certainty, determine approximate purity.
Remember this is bullion so who cares if it blotches your test piece. I have some bullion with deep cuts into them so as to expose and test the actual metal inside. The bullion is still bullion and still of the same value by weight.
Collectibilty and rarity of particular mintages on rounds may drive the perceived value of them up but they are in actuality only worth the silver in a trading scenario. Premiums also drive up the Worth, but not Value of the bullion. and this is where many lose money when buying bullion.
Example: An OPM Round made from recycled .999 Silver selling at spot + .70 premium has the same value as a Perth Mint Kook at spot +$8.00 premium. So why buy the Kook? Vanity or the belief that someone will buy it for an intrinsic value rather than its content.
It's worth may be actually higher than it's value. but that is up to the buyer and has no relationship to it's actual value in silver.
Personally I Load up on Low Premium Silver and only buy a few examples of the Rounds I want to look at.
In the End they all gleam in the Sun
Buy Low Sell High