Magnets Now Unreliable To ID Counterfeit Coins!

Above, fake Morgan dollar and American Eagle coins. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Two years ago, two friends and I were scammed with counterfeit coins from ads placed on Facebook.

We were able to find out that they were fakes by using the magnet test. Each coin was attracted to the magnets we used. We were able to get our money (or credit card charges) reversed.

Well, that method is no longer reliable.

According to the Anti-Counterfeiting Educational Foundation:

If you’re using a magnet and/or an acid test to identify counterfeit U.S. silver coins, your “technology” is unreliable.

In other words, the counterfeiters are way ahead of you!

There was a time when a small magnet that you could hold in your hand was all you needed. That’s because most of the core metals used make to make counterfeits earlier were “ferromagnetic” – meaning they would be attracted to a magnet. Such metals include iron, steel, nickel or manganese. Even with a thin silver plating covering the outside, the core metal’s properties were strong enough to attract the magnet.

Today’s generation of counterfeits contain metals in the core that are not attracted to a magnet such as lead, titanium, copper, or brass. The outside of the coin is thinly plated with silver to deceive you into believing the coin is real and made of 90 percent or .999 fine silver. Counterfeiters of gold coins prefer to use tungsten for the core because its weight is close to gold. Whereas, most fake silver coins ACEF has cut for testing purposes have centers of lead or copper or layers of both.

Acid has always been the least desired way of testing silver and gold coins. That’s because if you’re wrong and the coin is genuine, you are apt to destroy the coin’s surface and render it undesirable – especially in the collector market. 

We now only buy coins through reputable dealers.

To read more and find out what method is still reliable, go here.