Electronic coin testers

I know there are coin testers (electronic) for American coins

for example you can put in a morgan dollar and test it and it will tell you if its genuine or not..



but do they have testers for ancient coins?

 

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I don't think those devices actually declare a coin genuine, but rather tell the metallic composition of the coin - i.e. That Morgan could be counterfeit but since the metallic composition is 90% silver the chance of it being genuine are far greater than if the machine read 80% silver.

 

No. Never even heard of the device you're showing...so keep that in mind.

 

a friend of mine who owns a coin collecting storefront( US coins only) said that the machine is 800 bucks and it compares the coin with the original in its database( of silver context because it can even go through the plastic to scan ( THROUGH the coin)

you have to enter in the exact coin you are trying to test( which it cross references its content with the original)So yes, in that effect its one of the only ways to truly tell if a US coin is genuine( China has been making tons of Morgan fakes for years)

 

Ancients are not bought or sold like bullion. Melt value never comes into the equation.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

 

You can get an ultrasonic thickness gauge like this for $70 on Amazon. It won’t tell you if the coin is real, only whether the metal velocity matches the expected velocity of the alloy the coin is supposed to made of. For recent coins with tight metal alloy tolerances that can be useful. For ancient coins with variable metallurgy it won’t be as useful.

 

link?

 

Depending on which wand is used, there is a depth limit as to reading the metal. You have to enter the weight of the coin and the type of coin yourself. It does nothing as to whether the coin coin is authentic , just that it has the same metallic percentage. China has started making their fakes out of silver for some rare coins lately as they still will sell very well to US crooks.

https://www.aliexpress.com/store/pr...py-collectible-coins/3516031_32890410152.html

There are several sources on the net about Silverlocks post, this is the first to pop up, but go down to #12 for it, and below that is #13, the gadget you refer to in your post.
http://www.silvercoins.com/fake-silver-coins-14-ways-to-spot-counterfeits/

Jim

 

oh my god. So then if the Chinese fakes are silver, How can you tell if something is fake or real?!

 

You learn the diagnostics of the real ones to start and then read reports of known counterfeits and learn the defects of such coins..or buy only slabbed coins that come with warranty of company as to being authentic. Its a harder way, but search such threads here and other forums as many are experts in this area. Jim

 

Move to bullion?

 

im a cheapskate lol

 

There was a discussion on XRF here two years ago. I don't know anyone who has tried this himself.

 

There is no easy answer for ancients. Electronic toys would only help someone who knew how to use them rather like magnifying glasses. Listen to jwt708.

 

You can buy a 'test' on ebay

https://www.ebay.com/itm/XRF-METAL-...ON-XL3-XRF-ANALYZER-SERVICE-ONLY/291690734421

 

does that work? How exactly does it work?I would assume all it does it test the metallurgy

 

There are a few more details in the link I sent.

My limited knowledge comes from a presentation, I believe by Haim Gitler, who used a handheld XRF machine for a study of early electrum. He said the handheld machine gave numbers quite close to the extremely expensive lab machines.

The portable machines, which aren't cheap and have expensive consumables, give a breakdown of the metal and trace elements on the surface of the coin.

The idea is that few forgers know the trace elements of ancient coins. If they are using old coins and jewelry there will be unexpected modern alloys or proportions more like modern coinage metals. In the future there will probably be databases of expected XRF values for ancient coins. At that point the machine could flags coins that are outside the profile.

 

So then sicne Morgan dollars are silver now and made with modern materials,( and a silver Chinese Morgan dollar would register as real as a genuine US Morgan dollar) would you agree its more difficult for China to fake an ancient green, Egyptian, or Roman coin with the metallurgy and wear ?

 

Beyond XRF, metal isotope ratios can tell you the source of the metal used in the coin. There’s an interesting paper (that I can’t seem to find the link to) about the source of Owls found in certain Syrian hoards. The surprising conclusion was, based on isotope ratios, the silver was sourced from Laurentian mines, meaning the coins were either reminted from Athens owls, or the silver was purchased in bulk from the Athenians.

Neutron activation and other techniques beyond the scope of this comment (translation: I don’t understand them) can be used to determine the approximate age of a metal alloy. I expect counterfeiting will become much more difficult when those techniques become more widely available.

 

The metalitics device measures the resistance of the object. Different alloys have slightly different measurements. So it can differentiate between, say 0.900 fine coin silver and 0.999 pure silver. etc.