Any silver stackers on the board?

[vintagetoppsguy]

I am really mad right now. So, I went to a coin shop today, a place where I've done a lot of business before (probable even Houston's most reputable coin shop), and I bought 10 ounces of silver - 10 1oz silver bars. 5 of the bars are from Sunshine Minting, the other 5 from Scottsdale Mint - both reputable bullion mints.

When I got home, I was going to put them away and, like I always do, I tested them first. There are a lot of ways to test silver, some destructive, some non-destructive. For me, the first test is with a rare earth magnet. If it passes this test, the other tests aren't necessary (at least for me). The Sunshine bars were fine. But when I tested the Scottsdale bars, they failed the magnet test. So I weighed them, but they weighed correctly. I still had the other bars in front of me, so I did a visual dimensional inspection. Failed! The bars in question were much thicker than the real ones. This explained the weight being correct.

At this point, comes the destructive testing. If it's not silver, no harm done because it's worthless anyway. If it is silver, it will blemish the silver. However, it really doesn't matter on bullion bars because they have no collectability (for the most part) - the value is in the weight of the silver. If it were a piece of jewelry or a rare coin, that would be different. So, for testing, you use a solution of nitric and muriatic acid. The solution is an orangish-brown and you just put a couple of drops on the item and wait about 30 seconds. If it's real, the solution will remain the same color. If it's fake, the solution will turn blue. The longer it remains on the item, the bluer it gets. Well, this one was so blue that it was singing BB King songs.

I've bought a lot of silver in my day and I've never been burned, but there is a first time for everything. I'm not going to disclose the name of the shop just yet. I don't think they intentionally sold me fake silver, they just didn't check it when they purchased it. I think they'll swap it out for 5 more bars and I'll be happy and just consider the matter closed. But if they give me any grief I will leave them a negative review on every website I can, and file a claim with the BBB.

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by vintagetoppsguy

I am really mad right now. So, I went to a coin shop today, a place where I've done a lot of business before (probable even Houston's most reputable coin shop), and I bought 10 ounces of silver - 10 1oz silver bars. 5 of the bars are from Sunshine Minting, the other 5 from Scottsdale Mint - both reputable bullion mints.

When I got home, I was going to put them away and, like I always do, I tested them first. There are a lot of ways to test silver, some destructive, some non-destructive. For me, the first test is with a rare earth magnet. If it passes this test, the other tests aren't necessary (at least for me). The Sunshine bars were fine. But when I tested the Scottsdale bars, they failed the magnet test. So I weighed them, but they weighed correctly. I still had the other bars in front of me, so I did a visual dimensional inspection. Failed! The bars in question were much thicker than the real ones. This explained the weight being correct.

At this point, comes the destructive testing. If it's not silver, no harm done because it's worthless anyway. If it is silver, it will blemish the silver. However, it really doesn't matter on bullion bars because they have no collectability (for the most part) - the value is in the weight of the silver. If it were a piece of jewelry or a rare coin, that would be different. So, for testing, you use a solution of nitric and muriatic acid. The solution is an orangish-brown and you just put a couple of drops on the item and wait about 30 seconds. If it's real, the solution will remain the same color. If it's fake, the solution will turn blue. The longer it remains on the item, the bluer it gets. Well, this one was so blue that it was singing BB King songs.

I've bought a lot of silver in my day and I've never been burned, but there is a first time for everything. I'm not going to disclose the name of the shop just yet. I don't think they intentionally sold me fake silver, they just didn't check it when they purchased it. I think they'll swap it out for 5 more bars and I'll be happy and just consider the matter closed. But if they give me any grief I will leave them a negative review on every website I can, and file a claim with the BBB.

That sucks, how much apiece are 1oz silver bars now?

[vintagetoppsguy]

Originally Posted by bnorth

That sucks, how much apiece are 1oz silver bars now?

Silver is right at $25. But the premiums are huge. I paid $31/bar - $310 total.

Silver is really hard to find right now. When I got there, there were no bars at all in the case (of any weight), but they did have a lot of silver eagles (which carry even more of a premium). I asked the salesman if he had any bars put away since I didn't see any in the case. He asked me what I was looking for and I told him either 2 5oz bars or 10 1oz bars. He brought out the 10 bars that I mentioned above.

They've got the digital machines that tells them real quick if it's silver or not. I'd love to have one, but I don't want to spend $5K (or more) for something that I'm good at detecting myself. I guess I'm mad because they didn't even test them. It only takes a second with one of those machines.

[Peter_Spaeth]

So what are the fake ones made of? And are you saying that the Mint sold fake bars, or someone sold the shop fake bars that looked like they were from the Mint?

[vintagetoppsguy]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

So what are the fake ones made of? And are you saying that the Mint sold fake bars, or someone sold the shop fake bars that looked like they were from the Mint?

They're fakes coming in from China, not the mint. They're made of different metals, but I'm pretty sure these particular ones are made of brass. Each metal has a certain clang sound when you tap them together. These sound like brass. It possible that whoever sold them to the shop might not have known they were fake either. They could have bought them on eBay or elsewhere with the assumption that they were real.

[vintagetoppsguy]

So I went back to the coin store on my lunch hour not knowing what to expect, but they were very understanding and apologetic. He swapped them out for 5 more bars, and then gave me an extra one for my trouble. He put them them on the machine and shot them right in front of me, so there is no question about these.

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by vintagetoppsguy

So I went back to the coin store on my lunch hour not knowing what to expect, but they were very understanding and apologetic. He swapped them out for 5 more bars, and then gave me an extra one for my trouble. He put them them on the machine and shot them right in front of me, so there is no question about these.

That seems like a great place to do business, too bad someone screwed them.