Posing a question about acceptable weight differences in the weight older silver coins..

ormandh

I have some thaler size silver coins which I am weighing to assure they are not counterfeit. I have calibrated my scale and have crossshecked it with modern silver coins and everything seems to be in order. My question is what is an acceptable difference in the weights of the older silver thaler sized coins from the 18th century? I know that a lot of these actually have adjustment marks to correct for the differences in the planchets silver content. What would be the acceptable amount of difference in grams for a average circulated coin of this size? Mine are coming up .3000 grams or .4000 in some cases for a coin that is supposed to weigh 22 or 28 grams apiece. Does this mean that if the coins are this light that they are counterfeit? If the coins have honest wear and appera to be genuine with natural toning and wear that they COULD be contemporary counterfeits? Any insight? Thanks. -Dan

CIVITAS

.3-.4 grams under weight on circulated silver thalers is perfectly acceptable.

As a general rule I would expect .25-.75 grams underweight to be pretty normal for circulated silver thalers depending on wear.