How Can One Tell If Its Real

It depends what you use the silver for. I melt my bars so I know what to look for when I cut them up and introduce heat to them. For your purposes it's much harder because you want to maintain the re-sellable form, so learn learn learn. A realist will drill a hole straight through a bar and test the powder with acid. Anyone else will just trust the seller from whom they bought the bar and just simply pray it's real. A realist buyer will not care that there's a hole through the bar, instead just weight the bar again and pay what it's worth. It's only metal. If someone says it's silver (or gold, as the case may be) you should not trust their word, but be very diligent instead. Homework and knowledge will save you time, money, and maintain good relationships with your sources. Never rely solely on them because they can make human mistakes. The first bars I ever bought were real and I was lucky but today I'm not so trusting and I check them anyways.

Good one Montana -

New to stacking as well, but I've learned quick to avoid things like ebay unless it is from a verified seller like an APMEX, scottsdale, JM etc. It's just not worth the risk to maybe save a few bucks...I have a few items I got off ebay a few years ago and they are suspect. Thankfully only about 30oz of silver.

to make things out of silver (jewelry, sculpture, embellishments, etc)

A better question would be, why would you buy silver and not use it? :P

Dumb question from someone relatively new at this:

For silver 1 oz coins, as an example, if the coin in front of you have the correct diameter and weight, is that generally enough to be confident that it is real?

I know silver is dense, so usually if it is not silver it is not the proper weight and diameter. Or is there a lot of lead filled 1 oz bullion out there?

I am not good with ice cubes, kleenex and pings. I even have the special magnets but coins I know are not silver roll down them like silver does sometimes.

I am looking for something pretty accurate and more scientific. A statement such as "tolerable weight and diameter means that >90% it is genuine."

You could just stick to circulated junk. I don't know of any counterfeiters who have bothered faking circulated silver Roosevelt dimes or Washington quarters.