Stagecoach Silver-Fake
Posted: Thu Apr 04, 2013 8:42 pmWent to the local pawn shop the other day and they had Englehard Prospector rounds and NWT Stagecoach Silver bars(the kind that split into 4 quater oz pieces) so I bought a few of each.
Got them home and went looking to see when Englehard made the Prospectors. Lots of info on fakes, so I look at one of the blogs. They have pics of the same 1984 prospectors that I just purchased. Trouble is, mine match the fakes. So I weigh them, only 29.9 or 30.0 grams.
So I take back the Prospectors and nicely, the lady I know at the pawn shop weighs them, acid tests them, then refunds my money.
She then tells me I had better bring in the Stagecoach Silver bar I bought also. At home I weighed it and it was 31. 3 grams but today I brought it in. She acid tested it and sure enough, it is fake also. You can see the copper under the scratch she put on the corner.
Didn't take pics of the prospectors but here is some of the Stagecoach.
I did call Northwest Mint and asked them if they had some better pictures of this bar that I could use to compare but they just said what was on the website is what they have. They said they knew there were fakes but nothing they could do about it.
In both cases the prominent features like the prospector, dates and horses and coach are very frosty and the backgrounds are mirror finish.
Be careful out there. Trust but VERIFY.
By the way, the pawn shop refunded my money on the Stagecoach also.
Got them home and went looking to see when Englehard made the Prospectors. Lots of info on fakes, so I look at one of the blogs. They have pics of the same 1984 prospectors that I just purchased. Trouble is, mine match the fakes. So I weigh them, only 29.9 or 30.0 grams.
So I take back the Prospectors and nicely, the lady I know at the pawn shop weighs them, acid tests them, then refunds my money.
She then tells me I had better bring in the Stagecoach Silver bar I bought also. At home I weighed it and it was 31. 3 grams but today I brought it in. She acid tested it and sure enough, it is fake also. You can see the copper under the scratch she put on the corner.
Didn't take pics of the prospectors but here is some of the Stagecoach.
I did call Northwest Mint and asked them if they had some better pictures of this bar that I could use to compare but they just said what was on the website is what they have. They said they knew there were fakes but nothing they could do about it.
In both cases the prominent features like the prospector, dates and horses and coach are very frosty and the backgrounds are mirror finish.
Be careful out there. Trust but VERIFY.
By the way, the pawn shop refunded my money on the Stagecoach also.
