@@PersonalStash420 Yes, you can buy the whole range available in store, but I don't think they do monster boxes, I've never seen them advertised, but I have seen monster boxes of kangaroo 1oz advertised from other re-sellers in Australia.. www.perthmint.com/metalPrices.aspx
1:19 That bit about the packaging makes a lot of sense. A legitimate company wouldn't pack like that out of fear of the bars moving around and scratching each other.
The nice thing about gold and silver is they have a distinct specific gravity, so it's almost impossible to create the perfect weight while maintaining the correct dimensions for a 1 ozt. bar. Another way to tell is to use a pair of calipers to measure the bar. I live really close to a precious metals mint, so I buy all my bar and coin from them. Never a fake. Great video.
They don't make the right sound when they bang together. The bag is highly suspicious but could've been an odd collector. Bars are never overweight like that. I hope you laughed in his face. Too bad you couldn't confiscate them for destruction.
Just an FYI for one and all. All banks and banking institutions used to have marble slabs at every teller's window. The reason for this is because real silver will "ring" when dropped onto a hard surface and marble magnifies that "ring". Not done much anymore because none of our coins are silver, but when we did have silver coins, this was a down and dirty quick check. Gold used in coins was nearly pure 24 carat, and the test for that was to see if it can take a mark easily. That's why the old movies have the pioneer biting the coin before accepting it. If it was soft enough to take a tooth mark, it was real gold.
Las Vegas used to be all coin machines. Silver dollars and silver quarters made that special sound in slot machine payout dishes. You could tell the difference of real silver walking down the sidewalk outside the casinos. Now it's plastic, paper and ink, clad and comp cards
@@tpike9482 I'm sure if you ever tried you could just shake a handful of coins and be able to tell if you had a silver coin amongst the rest. I can, I have never been a banker.
Don't forget a lot of the Olympic athletes when they get their gold medal they bite on it I don't care what they religious preference is the National Origins are they take a little test sample it's tradition and nobody wants to break through this
Did anyone also notice that the fake bar weight said " 1ounce" but the real one said " one Troy ounce" I came across this fact over 35 years ago! Also I made sure that every time I purchased silver I always left the store with it in my possession. The store owner also offered to store my silver in his vault, I declined. Some weeks later I returned to purchase more and found the store closed with several other people who had stored their silver that was obviously gone! Some had prepaid for their order and also lost it all. The store owner cleaned out the vault and disappeared only to be caught a couple months later claiming to be broke! PURCHASING BULLION WILL ALWAYS BE A GOOD IDEA BUT DO IT WITH EYES WIDE OPEN!!
I do not buy gold/silver bars, usually I only purchase US coins. They all say 1 oz. Not 1 Troy Oz, although I am sure the weight is troy ounce. Just so people know not all gold/silver say "troy" ounce if it is real.
that doesnt mean anything. 1 ounce and 1 troy ounce are compketley different weights. bullion is usually sold in troy measures but not always. check how much it weighs in grams
I've never seen silver packed like this! They usually come packed in one bag like this, but each silver bar has its own compartment! The colouration and blemishes on those 'fake bars' also would ring alarm bells with most people....
Another simple test is to put an ice cube on the silver. If it instantly melts it’s likely to have silver in it as silver is the best thermally conducting metal.
I'm surprised you didn't do the sound test. Drop both bars on a marble counter. Tell the difference blindfolded. Differences are about as clear as tapping a spoon against a crystal goblet and a tupperware cup. There is a reason silver bells, the real ones, have a unique ring.
I have an excellent magnet tester I built out of old hard drive. I have the rare earth mags bolted together (facing each other) and you drop your coin / bar between them. The coin or bar will fall through slowly and you can’t actually feel the weight of your silver piece pull on the magnets as it falls through. This little contraption is freakin great!
@Craig Carmichael if you have a large super magnet (like an mri) i challange you to grab a 5 ounce silver bar and TRY to force it through the machine. it might take you an hour to push it through the field. and since it's not actually magnetic you will only get the breaking effect. think of it as a force field for silver bullets.
@Craig Carmichael it produces a smaller but stronger magnetic field then the sun. 5 tesla. (i think that means it's 5 times as strong as the sun's magnetic field)
@Craig Carmichael let me correct that after googling an mri machine produces a magnetic field that is about 140 THOUSAND times as strong as the earths magnetic field. (but much much smaller ofcourse) the suns magnetic field is twice as strong as the earths. soo yeah. i was a little off with my 5 times. according to what i just read it's about 70000 times as strong as our sun's magnetic field. you should look up some of the video's they did on this where they put objects inside of an mri.
I bought five 1 ounce bars from fleabay. All five were copper with plate on. Luckily the guy took them back for a refund for me. His question ‘ how did you know’ made me very suspicious, after him pleading that he didn’t know they were fake.
Thank you for this video! I'm a newbie and bought a couple of bars off eBay and one of them looked odd, it also sounded odd when I pinged against the other pure bars so I scratched tested it and after one scratch it was bright copper underneath! Ugh, learning curve but I got my money back. Thank you again, I wouldn't have known how to check for fake bars!!
Excellent Point. Can't believe I forgot to mention that in this video. This bar was tested and is not magnetic at all. We use a super strong magnet for all metal tests. Thanks for your comment, I will try and add annotation that clarifies this!
It is not about it is magnetic or not. Let the neodymium magnet slide down the bar. If is slide slow it's silver or copper. If it slides fast it is something else. It is all about eddy currents and the metals ability to conduct current - not whether or not the material is magnetic.
@@HifiCentret I'm pretty sure that's what he meant by that. I hope anyway, or they've been using a super strong magnet on all their metal tests in the wrong fashion.
You said the acid was for sterling (I think)... My acid test for all levels and the color of the acid changes relative to the metal content. For Nickel it turns bluish for example.
Yep China they make them in bulk fake silver bars, Morgan/Peace dollars and its a full time job for them use a coin press machine and change the mould when printing bars throw them in the dirt to make them seem worn then sell them for cheap just avoid ebay
Another thing to consider if you are buying lots from a single point, cut one bar in half and test the interior. The scratch test or surface acid test wont tell you if the core is silver as well. Also, silver in powder form is combustible.
That's why the sound test, weight test, magnet test, chemical test and size test should all be employed. The only time something needs to be cored is on a large bar that could contain a deeply buried "non silver" core of different mixtures that would trick all of those tests.
Robert kiyosaki actually enlightened me on investing into gold and silver. This video definitely made a difference. I just want to know where i can purchase the test acid?
Adrian Arshad Justus has been coming for 2000 years. Put your money in real investments that pays you dividends and have the magic of compounding work for you.
John Hadleigh no one invests in bonds for dividends since they don’t pay them, so no compounding, stocks that pay dividends are the investment to make.
What exactly is the acid you use? I have a piece that isn't marked there isn't any stamps as to the purity of silver. However it was cast and it oxidizes with hydrochloric acid with tellurium added, i bought to patina my silver projects?
6:10 if you have a fake bar that has the proper weight (shouldn’t be hard to do) to fool the scale and have a silver plate to fool the scratch/acid, what can you do? I own several thousand oz and am wondering if I wanted to test at scale how that would be done
@@codycast Get a graduated glass measuring cylinder and fill it partially with water, then lower the coin into it and subtract the difference. www.amazon.com/Graduated-Cylinder-Borosilicate-Karter-Scientific/dp/B006UKIB9G/ref=sr_1_5?crid=833Y83EO914Z&dchild=1&keywords=500ml+graduated+cylinder&qid=1587299542&s=industrial&sprefix=500+ml+%2Cindustrial%2C175&sr=1-5
Robert Brandywine yeah but if a coin is the same size/weight I’d imagine it would displace the same water. So my question wasn’t how to measure volume. But how that would show if it were fake.
@@codycast The water test is for when you have two coins or ingots that are the same weight but are not the same size but are close enough in size for it not to be evident to the eye.
BeachGold, what is the metal plate in which your rubbing the bars on to please, I need to check my silver stack now I have viewed you fantastic insight....
@@ltcajh Unfortunately a lot of bars are being counterfeited, Credit Suisse, Pamp etc. right down to the outer packaging. Where, depends on where you live. If you're in the states, you really want to look for someone who's been in the business (bullion / coin dealer) a long time. If you're in or near a big city like NY, some of the big banks have bullion departments like Mellon Bank or Canada's Scotia Bank which has a branch. Banks are a more common place to buy bullion in Europe. Hope it helps
Just out of curiosity, do some places use recovered silver for bars? I used to work in photofinishing with C41 silver halide processing and you had to recover the silver for recycling back into the chemistry and paper. One method used a drum that would get encrusted on the silver and you had to scrape it. Another used a method with steel wool where the iron in the steel wool is replaced by silver (this I know because iron deposits clogged the plumbing in the store). I have tiny gram bars in cellophane but staples to be separate and the appear white and non-magnetic but remind me of recovered silver.
You can tell they're not silver by the way they sound. Of course I have an advantage in that respect as I am old enough and used silver dimes, quarters, halves and dollars when I was young back in the 50's and 60's. If you ever get a chance to play with a handful of silver dollars (make sure they're not collectible so you don't ruin their value) you will get a good idea of the sound they make as they hit each other. The sound is distinctly different, as most metals are from each other.
Today's money really isn't worth anything it isn't backed by anything IE gold or silver. It's only worth what it is because the government says it is which I'm pretty sure you already know this just wanted to say so for the people that don't
It comes down to accuracy and quality of a "fake" bar. They are normally way off weight. And if they are not, the dimensions are off. Its not the easiest thing to create a bar that looks like 1 oz, and weighs 1 oz. And do the ring test, that is a great way to test silver vs another alloy.
I never buy bars off ebay or any other silver except one time I got silver nickels exactly at spot. Its almost always over priced. Basically the people on ebay are buying bags of $100 face value dimes, quarters, Bars, etc from JM Bullion or SD Bullion and splitting them into 50 dime rolls or lots and getting people to pay stupid prices for them. Friends should band together and buy these bags and bars straight from the dealers and save 10-20%
Ive noticed this on gun auction sights and eBay (military) vehicles. My dad wanted to know the value of his rusted out 57 chevy (2 door Belair) he tells me it's worth $13K because he saw one "selling" for that price. People can ask any price they want, doesn't mean it sells.
it's perfectly fine to buy silver off ebay. just avoid chinese sellers XD and recognise the chinese sellers lying about their location being in the states.
i've bought most my silver off ebay but i mostly stick to mcm, jm bullion, ect. I feel pretty safe doing that and can often get pretty good deals. Bullion Exchange has some of the best deals but there shipping is slow. I did buy a monster box awhile back from a local coin store when silver was 13 and some change to get my dollar cost average down. But over the last 10 years i have got 2 fake silver coins off ebay. I shot them both with a 300 win mag for target practice. One was a proof austalian croc and i forget the other fake.
I have found that items with a thick silver plate will give a positive silver test. You have to drop some acid test solution onto the item to dissolve through the plating.
Ya'll missed the point of rubbing the edge on a block. Silver plate is so thin, you can rub right through it in a couple stokes....leaving residue of the metal under it on the block...THAT is what you test with the acid.
Wow and I almost planned on buying 5 silver coins from MCM. I thought the prices were nice but I had a bad gut feeling about this. Glad I never looked back.
So I am guessing you purchased the fake silver bars from customer. Did they mention where they purchase them? I buy from MCM off eBay and always weight my stuff when it comes in.
Gotta complain about SOMETHING huh? Geez...It's better than it bouncing all over the place! Be quiet! Nobody cares about tour complaint. This is NOT Burger King.
Cool, not only did i watch an informative video on telling fake from real silver just as i am becoming interesting in collecting silver but its also from a store in my area! thank you UA-cam algorithm gods!
Thanks for your comment! I just wanted to be clear though, MCM is actually reputable and are probably safe to buy from. I contacted MCM about these bars and they were aware that there were some fakes running around ebay at some point in time. Your right though, it definitely does not help their image. But people need to be aware that this stuff is out there.
Thanks for reply and the video. Yes I understand, not their fault that their products have been counterfeited. But as a buyer it doesn't make me want to rush out and buy their products either, especially if I wanted to sell later on if this problem continues. But it appears the counterfeiting is pretty widespread unfortunately anyways...
I’m fairly new to silver. I buy 5 oz a week from my local gun store/western store since I’m 840 miles away from home. Any way i can do other tests to make sure they’re legit? If not I’m about to raise some hell. Their silvertown bars and after watching this I’m on edge a little
Michael Smith, if you turn 'em into bullets and pluck 'em from the corpse of a werewolf then it's real silver, or possibly werewolves don't exist and you're now getting the chair.
ebay is fine, just make sure you are buying from the large bullion sellers themselves, not Joe Schmo. Silvertowne, APMEX, and MCM have storefronts on there, only buy from them.
The bar is a very smooth surface that takes just enough metal off for testing, and to see if the item is plated. While yes it is removing some of the bars mass, the amount is more like .000000001 oz, and is not detectable by a normal scale. It does not create enough change to change the value of the bar's precious metal.
This video has me worried. About 15 yrs ago, I bought some coins from a coin dealer. Not wanting to spend much, I purchase about six Kennedy 90% silver halves and a silver bar. The first red flag was when I caught the dealer putting mostly 40% Kennedys into my bag. When I pointed it out, he apologized and substituted the 40%s with 90%s. After I left, I recounted my money and found out that he short changed me. I went back and he gave me the correct amount. When I got home about two hours later, I noticed that there were only five coins in my bag. I'm now wondering if even the silver bar is real!
Some of the tolerances have to do with where you are on earth 1oz isn't 1 oz everywhere the closer to the equator the lighter items get. Example If you weighed 100 pounds at either pole on a spring scale, at the equator you would weigh 99.65 pounds, or 5.5 ounces less. What is the thing your scratching on?
I don't know if you covered this yet what about bullion that says one troy ounce but weighs .99 troy is it common place now to short a customer in this fashion
.99 MIGHT be ok if it is worn, but it raises red flags for sure. I would check on a couple of scales to be sure, preferably one that is certified and for precious metals.
Cool video very informative on that I'm a silver guy I like silver more than I like gold and I've always just done the acid test I don't have any silver bars yet but that's going to be one thing I'm going to be looking for all the best John new to your Channel
@@JM-so6yl My 100 oz bars weigh between 3112 to 3114. (with a very cheap scale, btw) Wiki says "One troy ounce (oz t) is equal to 31.103 476 8 grams". I'll just use 31.1g per ozt.
Does anyone know, if the bar is plated with real silver, will it scratch off easily to expose the real metal inside, or will there be enough plating that you either have to keep scratching it off or you get a "false positive" with the acid?
I'm lucky, I live in Perth, Australia, home of the Perth Mint - I buy from them direct in store so no possibility of fake metal
@@PersonalStash420 Yes, you can buy the whole range available in store, but I don't think they do monster boxes, I've never seen them advertised, but I have seen monster boxes of kangaroo 1oz advertised from other re-sellers in Australia..
www.perthmint.com/metalPrices.aspx
I love their work.
To buy from mint is also more expensive
@@oliverwindsor but worth it
I would say always buy direct from store either mint or private
1:19 That bit about the packaging makes a lot of sense. A legitimate company wouldn't pack like that out of fear of the bars moving around and scratching each other.
I just had a fake gold bar pass through the lab. Def open the packaging and test the piece if there is any doubt whatsoever. Great vid!
The sound of silver makes my heart sing...Those mcm bars sounded like plain clanking...
"sound" as a dollar
I wish he would have done a "ping test"
Thanks for helping the community how to tell good silver from bad. Thanks for sharing!!!
There is no good and bad silver. There is silver and there's other metals.
The nice thing about gold and silver is they have a distinct specific gravity, so it's almost impossible to create the perfect weight while maintaining the correct dimensions for a 1 ozt. bar. Another way to tell is to use a pair of calipers to measure the bar. I live really close to a precious metals mint, so I buy all my bar and coin from them. Never a fake. Great video.
They don't make the right sound when they bang together. The bag is highly suspicious but could've been an odd collector. Bars are never overweight like that. I hope you laughed in his face. Too bad you couldn't confiscate them for destruction.
Just an FYI for one and all. All banks and banking institutions used to have marble slabs at every teller's window. The reason for this is because real silver will "ring" when dropped onto a hard surface and marble magnifies that "ring".
Not done much anymore because none of our coins are silver, but when we did have silver coins, this was a down and dirty quick check.
Gold used in coins was nearly pure 24 carat, and the test for that was to see if it can take a mark easily. That's why the old movies have the pioneer biting the coin before accepting it. If it was soft enough to take a tooth mark, it was real gold.
Las Vegas used to be all coin machines. Silver dollars and silver quarters made that special sound
in slot machine payout dishes. You could tell the difference of real silver walking down the sidewalk
outside the casinos. Now it's plastic, paper and ink, clad and comp cards
@@tpike9482
I'm sure if you ever tried you could just shake a handful of coins and be able to tell if you had a silver coin amongst the rest. I can, I have never been a banker.
Don't forget a lot of the Olympic athletes when they get their gold medal they bite on it I don't care what they religious preference is the National Origins are they take a little test sample it's tradition and nobody wants to break through this
Yea cartoons bite the coin and their teeth break so I guess thats a fake coin lol
Thanks, never knew that!!!
Silver sounds different. That’s how I find silver quarters in my change.
64 n before baby
Can you be more specific about the acid used and the steel metal plate (type and addition alloys ) used for testing :) Thank you !
Did anyone also notice that the fake bar weight said " 1ounce" but the real one said " one Troy ounce" I came across this fact over 35 years ago! Also I made sure that every time I purchased silver I always left the store with it in my possession. The store owner also offered to store my silver in his vault, I declined. Some weeks later I returned to purchase more and found the store closed with several other people who had stored their silver that was obviously gone! Some had prepaid for their order and also lost it all. The store owner cleaned out the vault and disappeared only to be caught a couple months later claiming to be broke!
PURCHASING BULLION WILL ALWAYS BE A GOOD IDEA BUT DO IT WITH EYES WIDE OPEN!!
I do not buy gold/silver bars, usually I only purchase US coins. They all say 1 oz. Not 1 Troy Oz, although I am sure the weight is troy ounce. Just so people know not all gold/silver say "troy" ounce if it is real.
thefireman285 yeap....buy be sure to weigh it with the scale set for troy ounce.....that can make a big difference.
@@rogersowers9837, Yes it can. Good advice.
that doesnt mean anything.
1 ounce and 1 troy ounce are compketley different weights.
bullion is usually sold in troy measures but not always.
check how much it weighs in grams
@Stoney Lonsome well,dont deal in that product,and i dont think its coffee
I've never seen silver packed like this! They usually come packed in one bag like this, but each silver bar has its own compartment! The colouration and blemishes on those 'fake bars' also would ring alarm bells with most people....
You are loving person..cause sharing is caring..keep it up!!
They don't sound like silver. Silver makes a distinct sound.
Great video. Would love to see what it would do on a Sigma.
I should have done that as I have a Sigma Pro, but rest assured it fails miserably.
The sound is wrong when they bump each other.
How did you get 70 thumbs down? Maybe the guys selling the bad bars?
*Half the planet is now negative nancy's. (dang phone changed my word)
Mike B, probably!!!!
Because he bought fake silver now he a xpert
@@chadwolfeschledgelsteinhau9697 Failure makes experts.
its at 111 now lol
Thanks for the demonstration.. I'm 74 and yes still learning.. wow so easy to ripted off.
Another simple test is to put an ice cube on the silver. If it instantly melts it’s likely to have silver in it as silver is the best thermally conducting metal.
I'm surprised you didn't do the sound test. Drop both bars on a marble counter. Tell the difference blindfolded. Differences are about as clear as tapping a spoon against a crystal goblet and a tupperware cup. There is a reason silver bells, the real ones, have a unique ring.
That's cool man interesting to know
Thank you for this comment. Will try it.
@@brandonso You can easily do ping tests on silver coins and theres even an app that will listen to the sound and tell you whether it is legit or not.
You can tap a coin without marring it and get that ring. Their are apps for ASE sound checks!
Great demonstration! I always wondered about how those acid test work! Thanks for posting it!👍
Extremely helpful and thank you very very much, Cory
I think that those phony Bars were first vacuum sealed and lost their seal
What is the testing block made of ?
I have an excellent magnet tester I built out of old hard drive. I have the rare earth mags bolted together (facing each other) and you drop your coin / bar between them. The coin or bar will fall through slowly and you can’t actually feel the weight of your silver piece pull on the magnets as it falls through. This little contraption is freakin great!
@Craig Carmichael if you have a large super magnet (like an mri) i challange you to grab a 5 ounce silver bar and TRY to force it through the machine.
it might take you an hour to push it through the field.
and since it's not actually magnetic you will only get the breaking effect.
think of it as a force field for silver bullets.
@Craig Carmichael it produces a smaller but stronger magnetic field then the sun.
5 tesla. (i think that means it's 5 times as strong as the sun's magnetic field)
@Craig Carmichael let me correct that after googling
an mri machine produces a magnetic field that is about 140 THOUSAND times as strong as the earths magnetic field. (but much much smaller ofcourse)
the suns magnetic field is twice as strong as the earths. soo yeah. i was a little off with my 5 times.
according to what i just read it's about 70000 times as strong as our sun's magnetic field.
you should look up some of the video's they did on this where they put objects inside of an mri.
That's pretty cool, can you link the magnets?
Where you got it from?
The packaging was a vacuum bag like those used in the Food Saver.
I bought five 1 ounce bars from fleabay. All five were copper with plate on. Luckily the guy took them back for a refund for me. His question ‘ how did you know’ made me very suspicious, after him pleading that he didn’t know they were fake.
That's a fair question from him tbh
Thank you for this video! I'm a newbie and bought a couple of bars off eBay and one of them looked odd, it also sounded odd when I pinged against the other pure bars so I scratched tested it and after one scratch it was bright copper underneath! Ugh, learning curve but I got my money back. Thank you again, I wouldn't have known how to check for fake bars!!
Great video, definitely got to be careful
Thank you for teaching me something very important to know about silver thank you
Please what is the bar at 7:00 made of ? What material ? Thanks
Thanks for this video! Could you please test that fake bar with the rare-earth magnet test?
Excellent Point. Can't believe I forgot to mention that in this video. This bar was tested and is not magnetic at all. We use a super strong magnet for all metal tests. Thanks for your comment, I will try and add annotation that clarifies this!
Thank you again for posting this awareness video.
It is not about it is magnetic or not. Let the neodymium magnet slide down the bar. If is slide slow it's silver or copper. If it slides fast it is something else. It is all about eddy currents and the metals ability to conduct current - not whether or not the material is magnetic.
@@HifiCentret I'm pretty sure that's what he meant by that. I hope anyway, or they've been using a super strong magnet on all their metal tests in the wrong fashion.
You said the acid was for sterling (I think)... My acid test for all levels and the color of the acid changes relative to the metal content. For Nickel it turns bluish for example.
what kind of stone are you scatching bar on
Any stone work. Well, those who are able to get marked. It's the acids
who does the test, not the rock.
This video was PACKED full of great educational tips. Very nice. Thanks to the makers
So is there any indication where these things come from?
My first guess would be China.
Yep China they make them in bulk fake silver bars, Morgan/Peace dollars and its a full time job for them use a coin press machine and change the mould when printing bars throw them in the dirt to make them seem worn then sell them for cheap just avoid ebay
Do the Chinese produce anything good in this world? Because I see scarce little
Another thing to consider if you are buying lots from a single point, cut one bar in half and test the interior. The scratch test or surface acid test wont tell you if the core is silver as well. Also, silver in powder form is combustible.
That's why the sound test, weight test, magnet test, chemical test and size test should all be employed. The only time something needs to be cored is on a large bar that could contain a deeply buried "non silver" core of different mixtures that would trick all of those tests.
I used this exact same scale on a pot farm and loved its accuracy!
NoBluffBuff tegrity
Thank you for this video! It does help many to be careful and KNOW your sources when buying precious metals!
Robert kiyosaki actually enlightened me on investing into gold and silver. This video definitely made a difference. I just want to know where i can purchase the test acid?
Google
i havent come across any fake silver yet but i usually buy from reputable sellers, but it's still interesting to know how to tell the difference :)
That's a food savers bag. Those vacuum pack machines for food. I bet they did have a vacuum but lost it in elevation changes.
Did you prosecute the counterfeiters? What is a good place to purchase legit silver?
Ive had good results from jm bullion and sd bullion both offer free shipping on $100.00 or more
"Are you telling me that I'll be able to dodge silver bars?"
"No, I'm telling you that when the time comes, you won't have to."
Adrian Arshad Justus has been coming for 2000 years. Put your money in real investments that pays you dividends and have the magic of compounding work for you.
Or just realize the bullets don't exist in the first place, Neo
John Hadleigh no one invests in bonds for dividends since they don’t pay them, so no compounding, stocks that pay dividends are the investment to make.
phahahahha!
What exactly is the acid you use? I have a piece that isn't marked there isn't any stamps as to the purity of silver. However it was cast and it oxidizes with hydrochloric acid with tellurium added, i bought to patina my silver projects?
that package is a food vacuum seal packaging.... I use it for the fish I smoke...
If you did say what type of metal your test pad is made out of I missed it. brass plate ? copper plate ? other ?
I use specific gravity to test. No chemicals and no damage to the coins or bars. Just a little water.
Water scale. I see. But how for silver jewelry not bar. And some way to cheat the water scale, I have ever seen.
6:10 if you have a fake bar that has the proper weight (shouldn’t be hard to do) to fool the scale and have a silver plate to fool the scratch/acid, what can you do?
I own several thousand oz and am wondering if I wanted to test at scale how that would be done
Maybe check the volume?
Robert Brandywine how
@@codycast Get a graduated glass measuring cylinder and fill it partially with water, then lower the coin into it and subtract the difference. www.amazon.com/Graduated-Cylinder-Borosilicate-Karter-Scientific/dp/B006UKIB9G/ref=sr_1_5?crid=833Y83EO914Z&dchild=1&keywords=500ml+graduated+cylinder&qid=1587299542&s=industrial&sprefix=500+ml+%2Cindustrial%2C175&sr=1-5
Robert Brandywine yeah but if a coin is the same size/weight I’d imagine it would displace the same water. So my question wasn’t how to measure volume. But how that would show if it were fake.
@@codycast The water test is for when you have two coins or ingots that are the same weight but are not the same size but are close enough in size for it not to be evident to the eye.
All of my silver I bought sticks to a magnet. Is that bad? :)
F1hotrod yes.
Very bad
BeachGold, what is the metal plate in which your rubbing the bars on to please, I need to check my silver stack now I have viewed you fantastic insight....
I've seen these silver bars come in my store, as well as counterfeit 1 ounce gold Pamp bars.... scary stuff...
Which sellers or sources are red flags? Any bar or coin names you avoid?
@@ltcajh Unfortunately a lot of bars are being counterfeited, Credit Suisse, Pamp etc. right down to the outer packaging. Where, depends on where you live. If you're in the states, you really want to look for someone who's been in the business (bullion / coin dealer) a long time. If you're in or near a big city like NY, some of the big banks have bullion departments like Mellon Bank or Canada's Scotia Bank which has a branch. Banks are a more common place to buy bullion in Europe.
Hope it helps
why only show the destructive test that you never use?
Thays why you dont order precious metals off ebay goto the real companys
Matt Roberts I order mainly from APMEX. They were recommended in an investing article
some of those real companies have listings on ebay too.
@@metsrus ya true but then at that point your using a real company not some guy claiming he has what he has
@@mattroberts8742 yeah I hear ya. I would never buy off from some random person. I make sure it's a reputable company with lots of feedbacks.
APMEX, Scottsdale, SD Bullion, and SilverTowne all sell on ebay...Legitimate accounts. More for me then!
Just out of curiosity, do some places use recovered silver for bars? I used to work in photofinishing with C41 silver halide processing and you had to recover the silver for recycling back into the chemistry and paper. One method used a drum that would get encrusted on the silver and you had to scrape it. Another used a method with steel wool where the iron in the steel wool is replaced by silver (this I know because iron deposits clogged the plumbing in the store). I have tiny gram bars in cellophane but staples to be separate and the appear white and non-magnetic but remind me of recovered silver.
How can we get one of those scratching plates?
What kind of stone is that you’re testing on. Is there a kit I can buy to test my silver?
Hard to avoid them after you've bought them
What is the name of the acid you are using ? What is the backdrop you are using for the ru test exactly? It's a stone correct, like a grey siltstone
It looks like a FoodSaver bag.
Does real .999 silver tarnish into a yellowish/orange tinge?
You can tell they're not silver by the way they sound. Of course I have an advantage in that respect as I am old enough and used silver dimes, quarters, halves and dollars when I was young back in the 50's and 60's. If you ever get a chance to play with a handful of silver dollars (make sure they're not collectible so you don't ruin their value) you will get a good idea of the sound they make as they hit each other. The sound is distinctly different, as most metals are from each other.
Today's money really isn't worth anything it isn't backed by anything IE gold or silver. It's only worth what it is because the government says it is which I'm pretty sure you already know this just wanted to say so for the people that don't
but what about if there is real pure silver outside but there is an inside kernel made out of a cheap metal alloy?
That’s what the weight test will us.
It comes down to accuracy and quality of a "fake" bar. They are normally way off weight. And if they are not, the dimensions are off. Its not the easiest thing to create a bar that looks like 1 oz, and weighs 1 oz. And do the ring test, that is a great way to test silver vs another alloy.
I never buy bars off ebay or any other silver except one time I got silver nickels exactly at spot. Its almost always over priced. Basically the people on ebay are buying bags of $100 face value dimes, quarters, Bars, etc from JM Bullion or SD Bullion and splitting them into 50 dime rolls or lots and getting people to pay stupid prices for them.
Friends should band together and buy these bags and bars straight from the dealers and save 10-20%
Ive noticed this on gun auction sights and eBay (military) vehicles.
My dad wanted to know the value of his rusted out 57 chevy (2 door Belair) he tells me it's worth $13K because he saw one "selling" for that price. People can ask any price they want, doesn't mean it sells.
it's perfectly fine to buy silver off ebay. just avoid chinese sellers XD
and recognise the chinese sellers lying about their location being in the states.
They were sold on aliexpress,
i've bought most my silver off ebay but i mostly stick to mcm, jm bullion, ect. I feel pretty safe doing that and can often get pretty good deals. Bullion Exchange has some of the best deals but there shipping is slow. I did buy a monster box awhile back from a local coin store when silver was 13 and some change to get my dollar cost average down. But over the last 10 years i have got 2 fake silver coins off ebay. I shot them both with a 300 win mag for target practice. One was a proof austalian croc and i forget the other fake.
So when did they start making silver nickles?
I have found that items with a thick silver plate will give a positive silver test. You have to drop some acid test solution onto the item to dissolve through the plating.
Ya'll missed the point of rubbing the edge on a block. Silver plate is so thin, you can rub right through it in a couple stokes....leaving residue of the metal under it on the block...THAT is what you test with the acid.
Wow and I almost planned on buying 5 silver coins from MCM. I thought the prices were nice but I had a bad gut feeling about this. Glad I never looked back.
Is there a diffrent in the sound, if you hit it with some thing ????
I've been looking into buying "junk silver and gold"
Go for it. Junk silver is still silver.
Can people fake the acid test by coating it deeper with silver?
So I am guessing you purchased the fake silver bars from customer. Did they mention where they purchase them? I buy from MCM off eBay and always weight my stuff when it comes in.
Aliexpress, sold as silver plated, not real
I saw numerous fake bars on the wish app. Shipping out of China.
how much did you get scammed for the silver?
Thanks for your comment. This is not my silver personally.
The camera fade every 5 sec is making me sick
Gotta complain about SOMETHING huh? Geez...It's better than it bouncing all over the place! Be quiet! Nobody cares about tour complaint. This is NOT Burger King.
Legit, it was making me nauseous as well.
I think texas smith is having a bad day
Ok ok, I'll watch the transitions next time. Just new at videos, etc.
Change it up a little. Or atleast dont use one thats so sllllloooooowwww.... felt like I was falling asleep but it was just the transitions
Cool, not only did i watch an informative video on telling fake from real silver just as i am becoming interesting in collecting silver but its also from a store in my area! thank you UA-cam algorithm gods!
I was about to buy SilverTowne bar from MCM then I come on youtube and see all these fake SilverTowne bars and now this video haha..
Thanks for your comment! I just wanted to be clear though, MCM is actually reputable and are probably safe to buy from. I contacted MCM about these bars and they were aware that there were some fakes running around ebay at some point in time. Your right though, it definitely does not help their image. But people need to be aware that this stuff is out there.
Thanks for reply and the video. Yes I understand, not their fault that their products have been counterfeited. But as a buyer it doesn't make me want to rush out and buy their products either, especially if I wanted to sell later on if this problem continues. But it appears the counterfeiting is pretty widespread unfortunately anyways...
I’m fairly new to silver. I buy 5 oz a week from my local gun store/western store since I’m 840 miles away from home. Any way i can do other tests to make sure they’re legit? If not I’m about to raise some hell. Their silvertown bars and after watching this I’m on edge a little
Michael Smith, if you turn 'em into bullets and pluck 'em from the corpse of a werewolf then it's real silver, or possibly werewolves don't exist and you're now getting the chair.
ebay is fine, just make sure you are buying from the large bullion sellers themselves, not Joe Schmo. Silvertowne, APMEX, and MCM have storefronts on there, only buy from them.
How can it not change the weight if you scratch some off the bar ?
The bar is a very smooth surface that takes just enough metal off for testing, and to see if the item is plated. While yes it is removing some of the bars mass, the amount is more like .000000001 oz, and is not detectable by a normal scale. It does not create enough change to change the value of the bar's precious metal.
China for ya!
I just bought a new RCM (Royal Canadian Mint) 10 ozt bar and its slightly overweight 312.6 grams...any thoughts on mintage variants
Looks like a food saver packaging lol.
I always test for fake silver with a Platinum Test kit. Platinum is often used to counterfeit silver since it is so shiny!! Watch out for Plat!
Just so your viewers will have a point of reference -
.1 gram is about a half thimble of common lint.
Or one pinch of belly button fluff .
Unbelievably helpful! Thank you! I was so so paranoid about my bar that weighs 31.41...
I stack gram crackers!
This video has me worried. About 15 yrs ago, I bought some coins from a coin dealer. Not wanting to spend much, I purchase about six Kennedy 90% silver halves and a silver bar. The first red flag was when I caught the dealer putting mostly 40% Kennedys into my bag. When I pointed it out, he apologized and substituted the 40%s with 90%s. After I left, I recounted my money and found out that he short changed me. I went back and he gave me the correct amount. When I got home about two hours later, I noticed that there were only five coins in my bag. I'm now wondering if even the silver bar is real!
ripoff merchants like that deserve a swift kick to the face.
Beware of a site named "WISH", Chinese, selling ASEs for half price. Gotta be a scam.
Yes, WISH sells fake stuff. Shows up all the time in Facebook feeds, etc. Beware.
Some of the tolerances have to do with where you are on earth 1oz isn't 1 oz everywhere the closer to the equator the lighter items get. Example If you weighed 100 pounds at either pole on a spring scale, at the equator you would weigh 99.65 pounds, or 5.5 ounces less. What is the thing your scratching on?
The sound of them hitting together is way off.
I don't know if you covered this yet what about bullion that says one troy ounce but weighs .99 troy is it common place now to short a customer in this fashion
.99 MIGHT be ok if it is worn, but it raises red flags for sure. I would check on a couple of scales to be sure, preferably one that is certified and for precious metals.
get your money back from the seller..
I'm afraid that silver bars that I purchased many years ago are fake mixed in with real bars. If they are indeed fakes, what do I do with them?
The good news is that the fake silver bar is only slightly less valuable than a real silver bar these.days.
what
The fake is actually worth ten cents which is more than your two cents worth of knowledge.
While copper is indeed going up in price it is not quite 'slightly less valuable'
1kg of copper is ~$6.65 US
1kg Silver is ~$475.85 US
Lighten up folks. Just a joke on how low silver has gone. Most people got it.
God most of you people can't take a joke.
Great video for the beginner. Thank you for doing the acid test for silver. I understand it now.
JUST BUY AT NORMAL LICENSED SHOPS AND ALWAYS CURRENT YEAR RELEASE AND NO PROBLEMS.
and what if the piece you buy is the only piece they forgot to test?
What happens when you want to sell your current year coins in 2028?
Cool video very informative on that I'm a silver guy I like silver more than I like gold and I've always just done the acid test I don't have any silver bars yet but that's going to be one thing I'm going to be looking for all the best John new to your Channel
I thought an ounce was 28 grams
TRUMP SUPPORTER a regular ounce is, but a Troy ounce, used just for precious metals, is 31.1 grams.
TY
Yeah I thought Troy oz was 32 .. learned something new
@@JM-so6yl
My 100 oz bars weigh between 3112 to 3114. (with a very cheap scale, btw)
Wiki says "One troy ounce (oz t) is equal to 31.103 476 8 grams". I'll just use 31.1g per ozt.
28 is called avoirdupois and 31 is troy
THANK YOU! Wow, this video is very helpful!
MCM??? Mighty Car Mods ???
I saw MGM at first :p Metro Goldwin Mayer
How silver/gold should be package?
Too much talking. Get to the point. Omg a 30second video stretched out to 9mins 🤦🏻♂️
He was thorough. Go watch television.
Mike you don’t own any silver so you shouldn’t watch this video. Guys like you should buy books like Silver for Dummies.
Does anyone know, if the bar is plated with real silver, will it scratch off easily to expose the real metal inside, or will there be enough plating that you either have to keep scratching it off or you get a "false positive" with the acid?
You can tell by looking at them they are fake.
by looking? cool... how do you that?
@@jackthebeenstock2852 the plain surface is mirror finished, it just looks like it's plated.
Legit MCM bars have a mirror finish like that too. They are struck bars, not poured, so the surfaces are clean like a coin.
What is the testing stone made of ?
Thanks for the vid-What kind of acid is that?