Have your fake and eat it (Or, 'identifying fake silver coins')

Heartbreak beyond description. Never in the field of human suffering or soap opera has such heart break been seen...

I bought a pack of coins from the auction house 'Toogood and May' in Shipton Bellinger. Sold as seen, fair enough, didnt get chance to examine them properly as it was busy and i was in a rush etc etc. Wasnt sure what they were, I saw an old date on one, so I bid £23 for the lot.

Really should have looked harder...

So, here are two of the offending items (cue hours of uploading and swear words as I plant my very first image!):

Fake 1849 Twenty Dollars and 1847 'seated liberty' silver dollar



To be fair, I didnt even know what they were supposed to be. Had I seen a packet full of solid silver mid 19thC dollars for £23, I would have smelled a rat. So how do you tell if you've landed a fake?  Well, a number of ways. Any one of them would have saved me £23 pounds. Fortunately, Im not bitter at all.

1.  THE MAGNET TEST
Obvious really. Silver is not magnetic. Nasty Nickel alloys are, and they are usually what makes up your fake coin. So if it sticks to a magnet, leave it well alone. Obviously this is just a 'silver thing' an old US Civil War Nickel will obviously stick to a magnet the same as a modern fake.

2. THE WEAR TEST
Hows the wear on the coin? If its a strange, uniform wear that has dulled the details and 'doesnt feel right' then its probably a poorly cast fake. Wear on genuine coins is usually not so uniform.

3. THE SPIT TEST
Apparently if you spit on a silver coin and wrap it in alumimium foil for 10 seconds it will start to smell of rotten eggs. Hydrogen sulphide you see, the joy of any secondary school science lab. It seems a bit disgusting to me, not sure I could bring myself to spit on Queen Victoria's face...

4. THE WEIGHT TEST
Find out how much a genuine specimen weighs and weigh your coin, then compare and contrast. Obvioulsy you need pretty accurate scales for this; dropping it into you kitchen scales with bits of egg and flour might not give you an accurate reading, and isnt very hygienic. Its even worse if youve been spitting on it all day...

5. THE COMMON SENSE APPROACH
Is it 'right'? Does is look and feel like it should? Is it worn, but spotlessly clean? It is covered in wierd marks or stains from the copying process? Did you buy it for £9.99 from a chinese buyer on ebay? If it smells like a turd and looks like a turd, its probably not a nineteenth century piece. And therefore not in any way a strange old thing. This is such a problem on ebay that you are now not allowed to sell copies or fakes, even if you say they are copies, unless they are indellibly marked as such. As for Toogood and May, buyers beware...
readers with any other suggestions/tips, please let us know. (as long as it doesnt involve bodily fluids of any description!)