ACEF - Anti-counterfeiting Educational Foundation -If you're using a magnet and/or an acid test to identify counterfeit U.S. silver coins, your "technology" is unreliable.
In other words, the counterfeiters are way ahead of you!
There was a time when a small magnet that you could hold in your hand was all you needed. That's because most of the core metals used make to make counterfeits earlier were "ferromagnetic" - meaning they would be attracted to a magnet. Such metals include iron, steel, nickel or manganese. Even with a thin silver plating covering the outside, the core metal's properties were strong enough to attract the magnet.
Today's generation of counterfeits contain metals in the core that are not attracted to a magnet such as lead, titanium, copper, or brass. The outside of the coin is thinly plated with silver to deceive you into believing the coin is real and made of 90 percent or .999 fine silver. Counterfeiters of gold coins prefer to use tungsten for the core because its weight is close to gold. Whereas, most fake silver coins ACEF has cut for testing purposes have centers of lead or copper or layers of both.
Acid has always been the least desired way of testing silver and gold coins. That's because if you're wrong and the coin is genuine, you are apt to destroy the coin's surface and render it undesirable - especially in the collector market.
Testing a coin's weight and diameter is the most cost-effective and reliable way to identify most fake silver or gold coins. (Some highly sophisticated fakes may meet genuine diameter specifications, but rarely do they have the exact weight of genuine coins.)
Government mints and private mints that manufacture genuine coins and precious metals bars have very exacting standards and publish (usually at their websites) the specifications of their products, including the metal composition, weight, and diameters.
For collectible coins as well as precious metals bullion coins, specifications can be found in standard reference books. For example, a complete listing of U.S. coins can be found in A Guide Book of
United States coins also known as "The
Red Book," published annually by Whitman Publishing, LLC.
Pocket-sized digital scales and digital calipers are available online for less than $30 each. If you are buying coins (of any kind) online, the best investments you can make are a digital scale, a digital caliper, and a reference guide such as "The
Red Book." And purchase them before you buy your first coin!
Digital Caliper
The digital caliper measures precisely the diameter of a coin. Let's use the
Morgan dollar as an example. The diameter of a genuine
Morgan dollar is 38.1mm. Note the
Morgan dollar being tested in this photo measures 38.26mm. You don't need to do more testing. The coin is counterfeit.
Digital ScaleThe manufacturing government mints' published weight of the coin or bar should match exactly with the weight of your item. Most references list the weight of coins in grams.
Digital scales provide a highly accurate weight measurement. The weight of an authentic
Morgan dollar is 26.73 grams. Note that the weight of the
Morgan dollar on the digital scale is 25.58 grams, which confirms that the coin is counterfeit.
Read More: Counterfeit Detection Series 
Posted 10/01/2024 09:45 am
