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A friend of mine showed me a 1932 US quarter and two late 1800s halves he bought off ebay. They were not collector quality and had some wear but not a lot. They were fake. Not silver. Very good copies.

Be wary. I thought quarters were too small and ordinary to be worth a counterfeiter's time but obviously not so. My friend has bought US silver dollars, silver half dollars, and quarters from ebay that were openly advertised as replicas. This is legal if they have "COPY" incised into the coin. All of them were advertised as marked COPY but none of them had that required word on them. The fakes used non-magnetic alloys. Be careful with what you buy.

Everyone that buys US silver coinage needs a good method of testing. On that note, I'd like to know what method people use to detect non-magnetic fakes. My hearing is not so good as to be able to depend on listening to the ringing sound. I don't want to carry a vial of acid with me everywhere (risk of leaks).

I think the 1932 D Washington quarter is supposed to have a lot of nuimismatic value. I saw an episode of Pawn Stars where someone brought in a 1932 D, however the "D" was counterfeited.

How does your friend know that his quarter is not silver? Can you get a picture?

You could weigh the coin on a digital scale. I think a silver quarter is supposed to weigh about 5.5 grams.

Quarters are 6.25 grams, less wear.

A pocket scale is a great tool because the weights are always off on fakes.It is a good practice to drop some silver halves or quarters on a hard surface and familiarize yourself with that sweet ring of silver,because that cannot be faked.While youre at it drop a copper penny,then a zinc.Copper rings and zinc doesnt,its a fool proof method for sorting 1982s.

He bought numismatic coins so thats why they are fake.

Are the 1800 coins trade or morgan dollars??

I am sure the quarter was a 32 D or D worth $100+ depending on shape.

Here's a good read on the subject from a while back:

http://www.pcgs.com/articles/article_vi ... 313&type=1

I have a few Canadian George V quarters somewhere that make a very dull sounding ring when dropped. The appearance of the metal was a bit strange as well. I've seen it suggested that a lot of fake silver coins contain lead, not sure if that's true. I guess doing the ring test in a coin shop is bad manners so the scale method is probably the way to go. Some sort of portable coin comparator like device could be helpful for this kind of thing.

It is amazing what people will counterfeit. Even pennies are copied. I have an extensive collection of fake Morgans, although I do not consider myself anything resembling an authority on the subject. While it is true in most cases that the fakes will weigh less than the genuine coin, this is NOT always the case. I have a few examples of very good fakes that actually used a quality silver alloy. The tip that sealed these as fakes was a simple misshapen leaf. If it passes the ring test and the weight test, it is likely good unless it is a key date or appears to be in a condition not normally seen, such as AU or above. In this case, have a quality, trusted coin guy have a crack at it.

I don't have any key date or MS silver coins, so I probably don't have to worry, but after reading this I think I'm still gonna go through the whole stack and do the ring & weight test on everything just to make sure!

if you are talking about numi quality silver, they may be silver but the numi aspect is faked.

if you are talking about junk silver, it can be faked but you should be able to detect that by weighing or by pinging the coins.

exactly. the numi fakes are normally high quality silver while the junk is usually something else.

Thank you all for your replies. My interest is in the bullion value of the alloy. Good point about the numismatic value. The 1932 Washington quarter probably was made to be a counterfeit numismatic.

Has anyone bought or used an ultrasonic tester (measures the speed of sound through the metal sample) which should distinguish correct alloys from bogus? I've seen x-ray testers from India advertised but don't want to mess around with anything hazardous (also probably requires an industrial license). If anyone has such a device: which brand and model, how much did it cost, and how well has it worked for you? The web sites don't list prices - they generally look like sophisticated and quite expensive measuring instruments.

Is there other testing device that do not use acids or x-rays? Has anyone personal used one?