
Having the same minted year will help with minor differences that may occur between each strike. By using the visual test, you can identify several red flags to weed out the counterfeit eagles. Examine where the coin meets the rim and between the reeds, sometimes silver-plated coins will not fill these in and with a proper magnifying glass they will be detected.īelow we have a real vs. If there are no grooves or reeds, there is a 99.9% chance it is a fake since minted coins non-reeded (errors) are extremely rare. Looking at enough real silver eagles, will give you a trained eye to easily spot the fakes.Ī dead giveaway is the edges of the coin or reeding. Just be sure to get one at least 10x the magnification. You can pick one up pretty cheap on Amazon for about $5. These are essential to the world of coin collecting & numismatics, making it easier to grade the quality as well as identify counterfeit coins such as fake silver dollars. A loupe if a special magnifying glass without the handle with higher magnification due to its special lens. Your tool of choice for this test is a handy magnifying glass or a jeweler’s loupe. Mismatched surfaces, text spacing, crevices, or edges will stand out if it is a fake. It’s always best to have an authentic coin or bar next to the one you are examining. Grab an old magnifier, the one’s that jeweler’s use, and take a good look at the coin. Silver has a distinctive look and feel to the coin not too shiny and not too cloudy. My magnetic slide at $49 is a much better deal 🙂 At $169 though, overpriced in my opinion, as a basic digital scale and good set of calipers will do the same. It also can check for the Canadian Maple Leaf, the Austrian Vienna Philharmonic, and the US Silver Dollar (1840-1935). It can correctly verify the weight, thickness, diameter, and shape of 4 different coins. If you are getting readings of 30g or 32g+ that is reason for concern.Īnother tool to test for the dimensions of the American Silver Eagle is The Fisch. There is no official guideline given, but anything from 31.1g – 31.8g should be OK. When weighing your coins, be sure to account for a certain tolerance or variance in the weight. If you want to get the top of the line calipers go with the brand Mitutoyo. A nice digital entry-level set is this one. To check this you will want a good set of calipers. Another easy give away is the diameter of the coin, this should be pretty exact at ~40.6mm.

Silver Eagles have a minted weight of 1 Troy oz. Here is the one that I use, you can buy it on Amazon for about $11. You will want to get a scale that measures at least to 2 decimal points in grams. The best way to take advantage of this is by using a good digital electronic scale.

You can view the specs of the Silver Eagle below: Since the most popular is the American Silver Eagle, we will take a look at that particular coin. This type of test only applies to bullion coins from government mints. Check out the video below, it’s actually pretty cool: A fake will move down the slide with no resistance. So real silver moving down a magnetic slide will move slower than fake silver. This causes silver to repel when in contact with a magnetic field. How it works: even though silver is non-magnetic it has a property known as diamagnetism. Simple and easy to build, this is a fun way to instantly spot fakes without any complicated testing. You can pick them up on amazon.Ĭontinuing on with magnets, another test you can to spot counterfeit silver is using a magnetic slide. Be careful these magnets are extremely strong, fun to play with too! If it sticks it tricks. The stronger the magnet the better, a neodymium magnet (grade N52) should be able to detect any iron or steel based metal. Metals that have a core of zinc, copper, lead or other non-magnetic metal will not be detected by this test. Fakes that are produced with any iron or steel content in them will give off some magnetic attraction and identify itself as a fake. If a bullion coin or bar sticks to a magnet you can easily throw this one out. While many fakes can easily pass this test, silver as well as gold bullion for that matter are both non-magnetic. (Most of these tests can also be applied to gold as well). We’ve ranked them from the least to the most effective methods in detecting counterfeits.
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If you have purchased some silver and can’t get rid of that little voice in your head that keeps saying what if they are fake silver coins …īelow are 14 ways on how to spot fake silver eagles, bars, and bullion.

It is unfortunate that articles like this have to be written,īut where there is money trading hands, there will always be fakes, frauds, and counterfeits.
