Just about all bullion investors worry about counterfeits. Those concerns are magnified when someone is buying for the first time. Stories about fake coins from Asia and gold bars drilled and filled with Tungsten have been in the headlines recently. But the truth is, counterfeiting is just about as old as the concept of money itself.

 

Before diving into all the ways that fakes can be detected, the first and best protection is to work with a reputable and knowledgeable dealer like mine that will provide certified products directly from the US Mint, that has all of the modern high quality control and internal screening standards, plus it stands behind the metals that it sells to a dealer like myself, that eventually is in the possession of you the customer investor.

 

Fortunately, making phony coins or bars isn’t easy. The equipment involved is significant – it takes far more than a color printer and the right paper. And making fakes good enough to pass a few simple tests is darn near impossible.

 

Some testing equipment, such as mass spectrometers and sonogram machines, are expensive and impractical for the typical person to use. However, here are some lower budget ways you can determine whether or not the bullion you hold is genuine:

 

Size and Weight:

 

Gold and silver are extraordinarily dense metals – much denser than just about any base metal, including lead. That means just about all fakes that weigh correctly will be too large in diameter and/or thickness. Or they will be underweight in order to achieve the right diameter and thickness. Simply comparing the diameter and thickness of the coin in question with others known to be genuine could be enough to put you at ease.

 

If not, an inexpensive set of calipers and a jeweler's scale are a good way

of checking. Every coin or round is produced with close tolerances in

terms of diameter, thickness, and weight. You can find these dimensions

and specifications for any coin easily on the internet.

 

Investors might also consider Fisch Testers. Genuine coins will be both

small enough in diameter and thin enough to fit through a slot in the tool,

while remaining heavy enough to tip the tool on its fulcrum. Simple and very effective.

 

Sound or “Ping” Testing:

 

Authentic gold and silver coins chime when struck and the difference is

notable versus base metals. (For more about the melodic Ring of Truth

you hear in Sound Money, read Guy Christopher’s essay here.)

 

Base metal coins will sound duller and their ring will be shorter, much

like the difference between clinking crystal versus glass champagne

flutes.

 

Try balancing the coin on your fingertip and strike it with another coin.

This video provides a good demonstration. Investors with an iPhone can

also install the CoinTrust application and test a short list of the most

popular gold and silver coins by gently spinning them on a hard surface

with the phone’s microphone positioned nearby.

 

Magnetism:

 

The above video on ping testing also references another simple technique for using a magnet to identify fakes. Gold and silver are non-magnetic. Placing a strong magnet on a coin and tipping it to watch whether the magnet slides off, as it should, or sticks, like it would to a counterfeit, requires only an inexpensive magnet and a few seconds. (Note that some base metals used in counterfeiting are also non-magnetic, so we suggest doing this in conjunction with some other techniques listed.)

 

Thermal Conductivity Testing for Silver:

 

Silver is one of the best conductors of thermal energy found in nature. That makes it easy to test silver bullion using nothing more than an ice cube. Place an ice cube on top of a coin, round, or bar, and you should see it begin melting almost instantly as heat is quickly transferred. Holding a coin or round between fingers or in the palm of your hand makes the results even more noticeable as the silver rapidly cools to your touch.

 

Acid Testing:

 

Investors can purchase inexpensive acid test kits for gold and silver. Watching

the color change in a drop of acid can reveal whether or not a sample is genuine.

However, acids should be handled carefully. Your items can be permanently

discolored. A handy cheap acid testing kit can be easily obtained to test coins.

 

Since bullion coins, rounds, and bars are valued for their metal content, not their beauty, discoloration is unlikely to reduce the value of your bullion by more thana small amount. But it’s still wise to use acid testing sparingly and with caution.

 

A Word about Tungsten Fakes:

 

Some of the hardest to detect counterfeit gold products involve tungsten. Tungsten’s density is close to that of gold, and it is relatively inexpensive. Here are some of the best ways to avoid problems:

 

Avoid large gold bars. 10-ounce and larger gold bars are among the easiest to tamper with as they can be drilled, filled with tungsten, and then plugged again with gold. This is more difficult with units 1 oz and smaller. Tungsten is extraordinarily hard whereas gold is soft. This means tungsten is very difficult to use in minting or fabricating small items. It is brittle, and stamping it with a design will result in coins with less detail unless its been plated with a thick layer of gold.

 

Ring testing as outlined above should still offer defense against tungsten fakes.

 

If the deal is too good to be true, it probably is. Never buy gold bullion below its melt value unless you know and trust its origins.

 

Buy Silver. No metal shares a similar density to silver, making it even more difficult to make good counterfeits than with gold. Plus, the financial incentive is lower.

 

Recently some of the more prominent mints and refiners have begun employing technology to mark products with seals that assure authenticity. For example, by Minting rounds and bars that certify and carry a seal validating its authenticity, sometimes revealed only when viewed using their proprietary lens and oriented correctly.

 

Mints employ the highest and most trusted good quality controls. Investors can expect all sorts of technology to be more widely used in the coming years, and as counterfeiting becomes more and more relevant, one should always continue buying through an entrusted Mint approved dealer. It still is the best defense against ending up with fake bullion, thus guaranteeing authenticity, weight, and purity.

 

I recommend making your major investment purchases with a dealer of the Mints, thus

getting professionally assayed and certified verification of authenticity. E-TCB, Inc. is a

valid, reliable, and trusted dealer for those investments, and handles each customer

quickly and professionally. Though silver and gold coins are getting harder and harder to

find with the Mints, E-TCB, Inc. will work to get what you want. Contact them at

mytcbformula@yahoo.com or (417) 230-2298 .

 

Hope this has been helpful,

 

E.