Determining Authenticity Of Peruvian Sol

They appear to be very authentic to me. The front always wears more than the reverse.

The first 1925 shown is rather obviously a contemporary counterfeit (falsa de epoca) - cast and coppery! Interesting piece.

The other 1925 is a bit curious-looking as well - though likely genuine (I think the crud in the devices is throwing me). The 1923 looks toned and genuine, a good example of circ. toned .500 fine silver.

The 1871 a worn genuine piece. It's honestly scrap in that condition. With a little searching, you can get a lot more meat in the common dates for really not much over melt.

I have been studying the 500 silver Sol and 1/2 Sol coins for some time. It began with a proliferation of magnetic examples of the 1933 Sol and gradually spread to all of the 500 fine silver issues. I have several conclusions.

The 50% silver coins were silver enriched by acid dipping when they left the mint. This was due to the poor reception of the 1923 coin when it first went into circulation. This means that XRF tests will read far too high a silver content which does not match density tests.

I also discovered that many of the 500 silver sols were still circulating in 1965 when silver prices first started to climb. This resulted in the rapid removal of these coins from circulation at a premium over face value.

So my theory is that sharp counterfeiters - who always have an eye for a quick buck started making non-silver fakes to mix in with bags of genuine silver coins. No one was actually testing common coins pulled from circulation.

My test purchases confirmed that very high quality struck counterfeits of all dates both rare and common exist in substantial numbers for all of the 500 silver types. Most look far better than the 1925 coin here (if the color in the photos is true). Some of these counterfeits have been slabbed by TPGs (1933 in particular) because no one bothers to check the density of the coins.

It is an easy test that all collectors need to perform for self preservation. If the Chinese Schroff's in 1835 could do density tests with crude scales why can't we do it? Kids in high school (at least when I went to HS) had to be able to do the test.