Question about testing gold and silver.

PerryHall

I was looking on Amazon and came across a rare earth magnet for testing gold and silver. It was inexpensive and very strong. How does this work? I thought fake gold and silver bars and rounds were brass with a gold or silver plating. Brass isn't magnetic so how would a magnet help?

SilverBaron

2 ways.

1] ....... You are correct .... Brass is not magnetic ... but there are really cheap counterfeits that have a bit of iron

in the "pot metal" mix used to make them ..... So it may take a rare earth magnet [powerful] to pick it up.


2] ..... It is the science of diamatnetics. Every metal will exhibit a resistance to a very strong magnetic field. It is

not easy to test small objects this way ... but is a great way to check larger bars.

Check out this Link to see a demonstration.



Keep on stack'n!!

PerryHall

Thanks. Interesting video. I didn't know there was some attraction of a powerful magnet to silver.

rawteam1

Most fakes u don't need a rare earth magnet its like carrying a 357 magnum to a spitball shooting contest, most any magnet will pick up a fake even a refrigerator magnet...

Use the rare earth more for possible fake 100 bars which like very rare coins are hard to find...

Best used for jewelry and chains to process fakes quickly...