A friend of mine once told me that among the sage advice her mother gave her was this gem: “Always know your dealer”.
Our benevolent trading partners, the Chinese, have quite the industry selling fake silver and gold bullion. If you’re not careful you’ll wind up getting took. (Taken?) So, without further ado:
Remember back when silver hit $~50/oz. a few years back? Thats when a lot of the fakes came into being….because it was worth the effort then. Being a somewhat durable good, those fakes are still out there. But its fake gold that will really land your wallet in the hospital. You just can’t take anything at face value anymore.
I buy my metals only form people I can trust. Usually, thats the Metals Pimp, or if I’m feeling obnoxious and like playing them against each other, the coin shop across the street from me. The Metals Pimp I trust in these matters unreservedly. The coin shop guys…well, if they sell me fakes I know where to find ’em.
But…as I started this post with, Know. Your. Dealer.
One product that I’m going to have to invest in at some point is the Fisch. Fits in my pocket and should take the risk out of buying gold out of the back of someones car in the Safeway parking lot at 11pm. Interestingly, some folks are offering anti-counterfeit measures. The newer Silver Maples have some tiny detailed maple leaves on them to make detecting fakes much easier…this is one reason I’ve shifted my silver purchasing to Maples. Sunshine has also added a security feature as well. The Sunshines require a ‘decoder’ to read the security feature, but you can usually find the decoder for about $15~ at most coin dealers. (Ok, yes, the Metals Pimp will sell you one of those as well.)
I’ve only seen one or two fakes, and I had to ask the guys in the coin shop to show them to me. Apparently they dont turn up all that often, but they do turn up. Where you really gotta watch yourself in regards to fake silver is when you get into 100 oz bars and that sort of thing. While there are bargains to be had on the internet, theres a lot of ways to get scammed too. eBay is notoriously full of fake silver auctions that use careful phrasing to sucker folks into thinking something is real silver and still not violate eBays seller rules.
Since I don’t have a heck of a lot of money to spend on gold, I buy mostly silver. At least if I get screwed on an ounce of metal it won’t hurt me as badly as if it were supposed to be an ounce of gold.
So…moral of the story: know your dealer!
Good article, but it has errors. Older American Eagles do not have a tail on the U of UNITED on the back of coin. The O is more an Oval on the older coins not a circle like what you see on the 2014. So if you have 2003 or older American Eagle, do not throw them in the trash thinking there fake. If you have a concern have them tested. I have 2002 coins purchased through Littleton Coin Company and by all their visual examples given in the article they are fakes. From my own research it appears there was a design change in 2004 where the tail was added to the U and the O became more circular for example. So be careful sometimes so called experts are not some much experts after all. Just my 2 cents.
Oh one more thing CZ you might have the metal pimp chime in on this one.
Funny you should say. I discovered something very interesting. Fake gold and silver is virtually undiscussed amongst coin dealers because no one wants anyone to think that they may have some. If a dealer gets some fake silver in trade from a customer, the odds are high he won’t say anything to anyone lest word get out that his supply of metals may have some fake stuff in it. It’s like leprosy…you shake hands with a leper and even though you may not catch the disease, you don’t tell anyone about it because they might isolate you anyway out of fear.
I’m 15 minutes from Canada (plus however long it takes to get through customs) so I’ve only stocked up on US 90% coins (Washington quarters, Kennedy halves with a some Roosevelt dimes in there for variety) and Maples.
I figure at the transaction cost where I might be using the 90% coins nobody is going to be too frisky about looking for fakes and the Washingtons, Kennedys and Roosevelts are all recent enough that I think most adults would have a pretty good feel for which ones are legit.
And as you pointed out the newer Maples have some features that help detect fakes and in my area they’re a lot more familiar than some of the other national silver coins (the Aussies, the Pandas, etc).