What are the risks of Counterfeit rounds?

[webmaster]

Subject:What are the risks of Counterfeit rounds?
By: Jason Hommel, Silver Stock Report

Overview: Silver's moving up again, about $11.48! So now is the PERFECT time to buy, after silver has built a base, and is moving back up. Now's not the best time for me to sell, since if silver starts moving fast, it gets harder for me to cover, and buy back at the same price. But I'm running a business here, based on processes designed to limit that.

Link: http://news.silverseek.com/GoldIsMoney/1231290069.php

[Ardent Listener]

"What about risks to you? Is the silver real?

It cannot be counterfeit. No fakes!

Silver rounds are made by a process of melting down pure .999 or .9999 fine 1000 oz. bars.

The metal is then cast into strips, or extruded into strips, that are then rolled down to exact thickness within 1/1000th of an inch. Then, the strips are stamped, so that coin blanks are literally punched out of the strip, like you'd punch a hole in paper with a hole puncher. Therefore, if anyone tried to make any fake silver, they would have to layer the strip with some other metal in the middle, which you would then see on the edge, like the copper sandwich coins like today's U.S. dimes and quarters." - Taken from the article linked in the post above.

Rounds may not be counterfeited as stated above, but couldn't they still be "faked" by just not starting with pure .999 or .9999 fine silver? Water down the silver a little and who would know? I'm not suggesting Jason would do anything like that, but in my opinion never say "can't be conterfeited".

[Sue-Z-Q]

qwertyqwerty

[SilverHawk]

Chinese Counterfeit Morgans:
http://www.silver-coins.org/counterfeit_dollars.html

Chinese counterfeit Pandas
http://reviews.ebay.com/Guide-to-Det...00000002807263

And I won't buy Mexican Onza's, just because the country is not well controlled on corruption. Not taking any chances.

[ricm123]

Originally Posted by webmaster

Subject:What are the risks of Counterfeit rounds?
By: Jason Hommel, Silver Stock Report

Overview: Silver's moving up again, about $11.48! So now is the PERFECT time to buy, after silver has built a base, and is moving back up. Now's not the best time for me to sell, since if silver starts moving fast, it gets harder for me to cover, and buy back at the same price. But I'm running a business here, based on processes designed to limit that.

Link: http://news.silverseek.com/GoldIsMoney/1231290069.php

I met a coin dealer who had a fake 1 oz round he had been "stuck with". A magnet would pick it up and it had a different "ring" when dropped onto his glass display case. It looked and felt fine otherwise.
He suspects it came from China. It was a generic that said "1 oz Troy" and ".999 Fine Silver". I did not recognize it, but would not have known it to be fake if he hadn't showed me it was. He was not trying to sell it, but kept it as a "conversation piece" and a warning to be careful when buying.

[hiyosilver]

"It cannot be counterfeit. No fakes!"

Not only incredible, but absolutely ridiculous. But understandable from someone who seems to think the market revolves around them....

[Ancona]

Anyone with enough time on their hands, a small vise and drill press, could use very small bits, drill out the center of some rounds and fill it with lead solder. Polish it up and maybe electroplate the thing and you could likely pass it off.

For something like that to be profitable, silver would have to be at 350.

Because of all the drill-and-fill stories that came out of the Nelson/Bunker Hunt thing, I do not buy anything larger than ten ounce bars, and confine myself primarily to ASE, SML and Phillies. The 90% is your best bet for difficulty in counterfeiting.

I couldn't imagine the work involved with pulling THAT off.

[valerb@bellsouth.net]

Haven't you seen any of the late night ads for gold clad coins trying to suck in the unsuspecting public. There are also dealers selling silver clad coins, so why would it be so difficult for one of these dealers to stamp .999 fine and put on a silver clad? As long as you buy from a reputable US dealer, you are not going to have that problem. Not so sure about E-bay.

[hiyosilver]

Again for the sake of newer members here, counterfeit american coins are very common in the junk shops in Asia. I have a few myself that I got on various trips there. One is a U.S. Trade dollar, another a Seated Liberty dollar, and I have various other coins. I'm not talking about the obvious cheap knockoffs you see in alot of places that are obvious fakes that a magnet will pick up. These look and feel authentic even to a trained eye. I took one to a coin dealer just to see what he said. His initial reaction was, "It's a nice coin." Then I told him I suspected it of being counterfeit. I wanted to see what he did next. He got out his book and found what the coin's original weight was. It turned out it was nearly 2 grams shy, proving it was fake. I figure it's made of some kind of "white" copper alloy. The point is that even the professional was fooled initially and if I had been a dishonest person, I probably could have sold it to him. The moral of the story is this: rounds can and are counterfeited by the thousands in Asia, most likely China, and can fool even professionals. When the price of silver rockets, you can count of all sorts of counterfeits. Rounds, bars, and any other thing you can think of. And those of you who are adamant believers in small form, that will be the most counterfeited because it will be the most likely to slip through. You can count on larger forms going through stringent testing before any transaction will be made.