Do I Have Counterfeit Silver Quarters?

If someone was counterfieting, woulcn't they be doing key dates?

Thanks for your comment, jimineez. I may want to learn to do the other tests. I wanted to add that while most of the 1964 quarters in my roll pass the tissue test with flying colors, as I said above, some of the heavily tarnished ones in that roll do not. In fact, I have one 1964 quarter that actually appears darker than my 1983 cupranickel quarter under the tissue. So I don't think that test is very reliable. In my research, I found this site which evaluates the silver tests in use (but doesn't include the tissue test) and their reliability: http://www.silverbarter.com/avoid_c...erfeits.html . That site rates the ring test (he calls it the sound test) as only poor / average. As the coin dealer demonstrated in the video I linked to above, some good fakes can sound very similar to the the real ones.

According to the silverbarter site, measuring weight and dimensions is one of the best tests you can do to spot a fake. The only way to properly fake that is to use a cheaper metal that has a very similar density to silver, like Molybdenum. Of course, I can always use the nitric acid test to confirm that the plating is silver, which combined with the weight and dimensions measurement would eliminate all fakes except the ones that use silver plated Molybdenum (or possibly another metal that has roughly the same density of silver). I doubt that current fakes, even the good ones coming out of China, go to this length yet (key word yet). I suspect that once silver goes above $50 a troy ounce that this will start to become a real possibility. Once it does, the specific gravity test with very good instruments may be the only way to truly spot a fake. At that point, I plan on acquiring those instruments.

Yep, probably just worn. If you are just buying for silver then buy newer dates. Send us the other ones since you don't want to collect them anyways. :-)