Silver Testing-Please Help

Johnny

Why? Are you concerned the products you're buying aren't accurate in weight or fake perhaps? If you buy reputable products esp. APMEX, you get what you order. You say "generic", define please, coinage silver or bullion? If youre buying Chinese, well I can see why you'd want to,or stuff off ebay is risky.

I am buying junk silver (90% pre 1964)coins from ebay and the local coin shop (usually at melt value for the local coin shops or melt + 2-4% on ebay). I'm also buying bars and rounds from APMEX or a sponsored dealer on ebay - I wait for deals and usually its 103-105% of spot. I would like to test everything for peace of mind and to make sure I'm spending my money on something that's legit. I would be very surprised if anything I have bought so far is fake but if I plan to build a decent stack for whatever use, I want to be sure.

Buy a gram scale good to 1/100 and weigh each coin. Proper weights are listed in the Red Book, or many places on line.

After you've weighed a few hundred, you'll probably quit. Chances of finding a counterfeit in 90% silver is extremely remote.

Such scales in a small phone size (or a little larger) very accurate and cost $25-30.

I grabbed this from a different forum it hasnt anything to do with coins or bullion but someone asked how to check that silver is silver!!

"There are a few things you can do to test, and I use multiple methods. It can often be simple to fool one test, but if you use multiple tests it gets much harder.

1. Try to buy from known trusted vendors.
2. Know what legitimate bars/rounds look like
3. Know what the genuine coloration/finish looks like
4. Check weight, anything significantly higher or lower than the stated weight is a bad sign
5. With acid tests it is best to sand down an area to make sure you are not just testing a silver plate. Many acid test kits include a block with which to do this. You can test what you scratched off directly on the block.
6. A simple test you can do is place an ice cube on your silver and see how long it takes to melt. Since silver is highly conductive it should melt very fast. You can compare with a bar you know is silver to know how long it should take
7. Check the tone of the sound it makes when it is tapped with a hard object. Real silver has a very distinctive ringing tone
8. Silver is diamagnetic, this means it will create an electrical field around it when it comes into contact with a strong magnetic field. If you run a strong neodymium magnet over your silver you will feel resistance as you pass over it. Be aware other metals are diamagnetic as well, so this test alone is not proof."