Finest of 1920 British Coins ?

DoubleDime

Is there a way to tell if a 3 Pence or 6 Pence is .925 or .500 ?

MasonG

I did a test with some sixpences, .925 and .500 have different rings when dropped on a table. Maybe not a good test for high grade coins but if they're circulated...

DoubleDime

What did you hear in the rings that was different ?

MasonG

The two types sound different. Not sure how else to describe it. Take one of each fineness and try it yourself to hear.

7Jaguars

This is a topic of possible interest to a few, and there are some conflicting reports out there. A dropped, or percussed (lightly tapped) coin not held should have a higher pitched note at the higher .925 sterling composition. Erroneously this has been reported as lower pitched.
A higher pitch should have a cleaner ringing sound and not so much the "thud" you get with copper nickel or to a lesser extent the 0.500 coins. In many coins a sterling specimen will have a bit of different color, sometimes reported as whiter and the lesser 0.500 coins a bit more "yellow"

Weight is harder to determine as far as a difference, and appears the same

0.500. this is recorded as 1.41 gm.
0.925. this is recorded as 1.41 gm.

I will weigh a couple of my threeepences and see if that can be verified.

MasonG

My test was using two GB .925 sixpences and four .500 (two GB, one Australia and one New Zealand) sixpences.

The two .925 sounded similar to each other, the four .500 sounded similar to each other and the .925 sounded different from the .500 coins.

FWIW...