Anybody know of counterfeit 1 oz. silver rounds made with RWM hallmark (1980 Edward C. Harwood) ?

coindeuce

Reeded edge with stars around rim and legend "Sound Commercial Banking" This one scales at 1.12 ozt. Not magnetic.

CaptHenway

The Harwood gold ounces from Gold Standard Corporation were less than .999 fine, so they weighed more than an ounce to net out at a troy ounce. I never did anything with the silver so I do not know is these are .900 fine or .925 or what.

http://chiefacoins.com/Database/Micro-Nations/Gold_Standard_Corporation.htm

coindeuce

The piece in question has the declaration on it "Contains one ounce pure silver", but does not declare fineness.

CaptHenway

@coindeuce said:
The piece in question has the declaration on it "Contains one ounce pure silver", but does not declare fineness.

Right. A two ounce piece of 50% silver would "contain one ounce pure silver" even though the silver itself is not pure.

derryb

@coindeuce said:
The piece in question has the declaration on it "Contains one ounce pure silver", but does not declare fineness.

looks like it works out to a .900 fineness. Still, an ounce of PURE silver is an ounce of silver.

coindeuce

Customer who bought this from me claims he had another shop test it with a Metalytics Analyzer and they told him it wasn't silver. The customer is a regular, so I've offered to have it scanned with XRF.

CaptHenway

What WAS it if not silver?

coindeuce

Don't know. I think the person at the other shop who tested this does not know how to use the Sigma Metalytics tester.

derryb

might not be silver.

ricko

Aha... a weird customer, a questionable product and a difference of opinion... The makings of a fine movie (according to today's standards). Let us know how 'the rest of the story' turns out. Cheers, RickO

derryb

@coindeuce said:
Don't know. The customer always acts very weird when purchasing bullion from me. I think the person at the other shop who tested this does not know how to use the Sigma Metalytics tester.

The Sigma PMV does not tell you what type metal or fineness you have. It only verifies that the metal and its fineness are what you have selected with the instrument. If verifies, it does not identify. And yes you have to know how to use it as well as know when to use one of the three attachable probes. I find that for 1 oz. or larger raw silver it is best to use the medium or large probe. Also there are a number of silver fineness selections. If you do not know the fineness of what you are testing then you should test the item at different fineness selections to help you identify fineness. If it doesn't "pass" at any of the selections then you have determined it is not silver.

What you have (since it is actually overweight) is most likely 92.5 fine sterling silver. The PMV will verify 92.5% silver. Since these were produced in the early 1980's it is very unlikely that they were counterfeited.

CaptHenway

Specific gravity is also a fine, non-destructive test.

idratherbgardening

I have one of these rounds and it's either 0.90 or 0.925 silver. Next time I dig it out of my safe I will test it with my Sigma and can post a pic if you like. It's definitely not 0.999

Vintagebullion

Curious of the out come of the XRF.

CaptHenway

But that was not made in this day and age. It was made 37 years ago, when the Franklin Mint was selling tons of sterling silver, and the market was very accepting of that.

Edited to add: This comment was made in response to a comment about market acceptability in different decades that has since been deleted.

coindeuce

This round tested as .900 fine silver with an XRF scan. The customer still hasn't returned to retrieve it.

CaptHenway

Thank you. As I said.

CaptHenway

Things change. When we brokered that 3,800+ ounce gold bar collection a few years ago there were European poured bars from the 1950's that were marked .995 or even .990 that were slightly overweight to account for this, and they were perfectly acceptable in their time.