Exposing Counterfeit Silver Coins - Testing Counterfeits - Quarters & Half Dollars 

This is the Blair Witch Project producer making a video on coins

This video was created for the sole purpose of bringing common small denomination counterfeits to the attention of the public. I couldn't care less about larger counterfeits that have already been covered by others or the counterfeiting of highly collectible coins in slabs or otherwise, because those counterfeits don't affect the common man or the amateur collector. This video was created to warn the public of the common man's silver currency being counterfeited & no other reason. So if you leave links to other videos about other high-end counterfeits I will promptly delete them since they miss the main point of this video.

A few criticisms... The weights of the coins were in the acceptable range for their types. The coins themselves looked like they had very little wear (with the eagle's breast feathers visible, as you noted), so it makes sense they weighed close to 6.25 grams despite appearing circulated. If anything, they looked more soiled than worn. Also, not every planchet is perfect. Occasionally one will weigh slightly more. (It's practically impossible to make millions of coins and not have a little variation.) Since the diameters seemed very close to spec, the next thing would have been to measure the thickness with your calipers. Several times you told us these coins were too thick, but you didn't bother to use the tool you had right in front of you to verify. Also, it was frustrating to watch you do the scratch test and acid test, but you never tested the "fake" and the authentic coins side-by-side for a direct comparison. You tested the suspected fake ones first, then wiped the slate clean before doing the authentic ones. Without seeing them side-by-side, it's hard for the viewer to make a comparison. The suspected fakes didn't really look any different from the authentic coins, based on the poor quality of your video. Finally, you could have done other tests to verify authenticity, including a rare earth magnet slide test and a ping test. Fake coins will often pass one or two tests, but will fail on multiple tests. The only suspicious thing I noted was that one of the quarters was a key date 1932-S... so that one was suspect for that reason. But given how the tests were not strongly conclusive either way, I would have taken that coin to a local coin shop to get a second opinion. Otherwise, you might have sent back a $200-$300 coin as a fake when it might have been genuine.

I know what you mean by the sound silver makes when dropped down. Having worked in retail I could always tell when I dropped silver into my till by it's sound. when ringing people up you don't have time to check dates on coins but when I heard it i would always move that coin to an empty slot and then have someone else sign on and give them money to switch out the silver. you also get to notice difference in older paper money. I have gotten 2 1935, 10 dollar bills and a 1934. they are slightly bigger than newer paper money. once we got a $5 federal note but I didn't have five on me and someone who knew one of the managers collect too told him before I could get back with the cash.. needless to say he got that one. for those who don't know federal notes are brownish in color on serial numbers and the stamp on the "Five" word.

I know the camera is shaky & this video is long, but this was an important video for me to get out & there's a lot of good info here for others to sink their teeth into... Thanks for watching in advance! (Duster)

Nobody would fake a quarter, there's no money in it .

Bro it's the dirt & grease.. I haven't seen fake small change.. There fine ur going crazy dude!!

Good video but I'm dizzy from trying to keep up with the camera. What did you polish the 1942 half with? You just about polished it away! The video is very helpful. I believe that I could spot the fake half but the quarters looked good. Thank you, Jerry

Excellent video. The first 3 quick inspections I do is 1: uneven wear on both sides 2: confirm non-magnetic and 3: neodymium magnet slide test. If these fail I confirm with weight test, no need for acid test

Did you ever find out what metal or alloy your counterfeit coins are made of?

Tough break Dan. Send those back! It gets me pissed off when I see thievery like that!

Would it be possible to match silvers weight with an alloy of 2 or more metals? Just curious

I just ordered 34 roosies from eBay and half of them were mint 1963 and your video got me wondering so I weighed them. A few of them weighed over 2.5 so I got concerned. I did the acid test and they passed whew.

Your a kind soul. Your just perfect. Thank you for the information.

Does the acid-stone test distinguish between solid silver and silver plated? I imagine you'd get the same result with silver plated?

Great presentation.

There are tons of silver quarters on ebay. I have tested some of mine that I bought on ebay and they are over weight. Why haven't more people made videos addressing this issue? This video made me question every 90% coin I have purchased on ebay.

your question even though silver is not magnetic, it still reacts to magnetic field, on a magnetic slides silver will pause and non silver alloy not steel will slide freely

Well I have to say that until your video, I never imagined that anyone would counterfeit a dumb 1958 quarter. But there you go. Others who have commented on a specific gravity test are correct, it's pretty easy to do, especially if you make some sort of "scaffold" to hold up the coins. If you (meaning you, Duster Dan) have the smarts to realize that there's no way a worn coin will EVER exceed mint specs, even if it's by 1/10th of a gram, then you'll do just fine making a SG test and interpreting the results. Esp if you have a known good coin on hand to compare. Good video!

I haven't any experience at all with video to give advice about yours. I think you did put effort into it. There is evidence you know how to test coins and I know more now. Thanks for trying the info is good for newbies like myself trying to learn.

Great video.

Wouldn't doing a specific gravity test be better to detect counterfeit coins?

Question for you, since you metal detect does your metal detector read the fakes as a different metal ?

That is U.S currency. If its counterfeit send it to the secret service. I'm serious.

Great video. Another dead giveaway is that no seller in the right mind would sell you a genuine 1932 s quarter in that condition at the junk silver price. That coin alone in the condition it's in is worth hundreds, off course if it's genuine. Really enjoyed the video

Thank you! New sub here. I like listening to you. I found accupple of metal boxes while metal detecting. One box had very nice silverware and 4 nice watches, gold/diamonds, appears to be. The other has alot of Morgan Silver Dollars and some other coins like 14 Queen Victoria on the front and a rider on a horse slaying a dragon on the back are real gold coins and are dime sized. I've been metal detecting for over 30 years and love doing it and like you & other folks have found rings and some coins but never found Silver Dollars (or what LOOKS to be silver dollars). A very nice man Mr. Willis from Gold & Bullion company looked at an 1878 Mint CC coin and he & his team looked at it though not so great pics taken with my phone. He said it looked perfect maybe too perfect and gave it an MS 67 or could be higher if seen in person. I asked him what the ball park value might be & he said 5 figures. I had no idea what that ment as I've only found regular every day coins from time to time. I knew NOTHING about Morgans. After watching videos like yours I've been trying to learn from them & I really thank you for taking valuable time out of your day to educate us. I was wondering why the fake coins did not stick to the magnet. I've seen vids where they just really stick to the fake coins but I guess it depends on the metals used in the fakes. I'm just hopeing and praying the Morgans are real and could sell well. I'd love to be able to get out of my apt. and buy a house ect. but if they're not real it would be a big dissapoint but we just soldier on.😁 Something to help you to find neat stuff is you can buy for under $20. little booklets about your states & most all states in the US that give cool valuable info on the state, with lots of pictures about the past. I bought mine at the Concord Point lighthouse in Maryland here in Maryland. They had a few on my state & it's beautiful old town. I found a picture of a very old house from the early 1880's or earlier that had been torn down in the 1930's BUT some of the trees are still here. I matched up the trees to where the house was and metal detected for almost 6 hrs. At the base of a tree that would have been to the side of the home is where I found the two metal boxes. I think that they were burried to hide them from the British during the War of 1812 but who knows. Why would someone burry fake coins, IF they are fake? So again I'm hopeing they're real. Before I try to get to a pro to get them cked out cause that can be expensive I'll try to get a good magnet and will bring them to store in town the deals with old stuff and see what they say. Think that's a good plan? Regardless of the out come I'll still be metal detecting and I wish you all the best metal detecting too. Many blessings to you sir. Sorry this comment is so long.

You could also take the coins to a coin dealer who has a Niton DXL precious metal analyzer to verify your claim.

Can anyone give me any tips...I have a 1964 quarter that looks odd, feels odd, and even sounds odd. A water machine wouldn’t take it and I just need to know if it’s fake. Please and thank you.

plot twist:The acid is also counterfeit.

A VERY good video..

A key date coin being sold at junk price is a red flag. I would have like to heard a ping test in the video, and seen a magnetic test. The acid test should be a last resort since it is destructive and only tests the outer layer; A silver plated item will pass.

So, who did you buy the fake coins from? If we knew, we could avoid them.

The side edges to me looked wrong on the fakes. I am still stunned that fake silver quarters exist! Anyways, very cool video! Thanks for posting!

I always wonder if the 1932 D quarter I bought on Ebay over 10 years ago is a counterfeit. It has the right feel and look and sound of a standard silver quarter but it was not authenticated by seller and was sold without even the advertisement of a D mint mark as if the seller didn't even know the value of that key date. It was an auction and right before the auction ended it went from a few dollars to my winning bid of $16. It's in exceptional shape like AU. I still have it but never got around to getting it authenticated because honestly I feel like it is too good to be true.

Ok can I get some help here I really new at coins but started collecting I live in New Mexico and not much places to buy coins at that I don't know if paying to much for a coin but I would love to buy coins if you could help me out and lead to to a place to buy thank you

Thanks I’ll have to check mine from eBay ! I agree 100% with you do it right with integrity.

Hopefully Dan survived the earthquake that occured during this filming

First digit obviously represents grams is the second digit representing centigrams of which there is 100 centigrams in 1 gram or does it represent the milligrams which is 1,000 in one gram

thanks for info. i have subscribed to your channel.

Nobody made these coins but the mint, come on now, who would bother, they are real

Faking a 3 dollar quarter seems like a lot of work.

could you move your camera around more I just almost passed out

Wipe the acid test spot with a paper towel. You should see a deep red spot on the paper towel if it's real silver. Looking through dark acid onto a black stone is going to be difficult to see a red color. Also, you could have checked the thickness with the calipers.

Yes,they’re making fake silver quarters. I have one. The scary part is that they’re also making half dollars and other junk silver coins. The question is if they’re being mass produced.

That tool is a vernier caliper named after the man that invented it.I use the Dial type but the digital version is cool.

So what metal do they use? Sorry if you said during the video...

Duster Dan! I've been buying several BU Franklin half dollar rolls from different ebay sellers. How do I know if they're real or not?

I have a 1990 coin that has a silver luster appearing about 40% content soooooo confused Dx

Love your content but PLEASE buy a tri-pod. Nice job.

.1 is not significant. Being a machinist,I understand that no two products are alike and everything has a tolerance. Most coins are given a +/- .097 tolerance so if the weight is off only that much it is acceptable. Now .5 mm in diameter difference is unacceptable. eBay takes enough shit without getting it when it’s undeserved. I’m as skeptical as anyone but no one is faking quarters. There’s no money in it. There are so many factors that go into pressing coins it is impossible to hold a standard perfectly. That’s why there are tolerances-human error is always a factor.

I would check for errors on the coins befoe i scratched them on a test method.

Camera work was fine! Thanks for the info.

DoIng some research will show that tolerances weights of the original planchets are around 1%. Hence even a worn quarter could be .0625 off in either direction. www.cointalk.com/threads/acceptable-weight-variance.93575/ It also is generally accepted a lot of loss of detail is not from silver wiping off of the coin (think about it), but is from the details being "compacted." While some very old and worn coins obviously have a loss of weight. A Walking Liberty has a tolerance of .125 either way. Thus 12.375 and 12.625 are legit weights Your quarters are also within weight tolerances. Here is a scientifically done test for finding losses of silver for silver coins: www.cointalk.com/threads/silver-loss-from-wear-on-90-silver-coins-calculation.144944/ The same can be said for diameters and thicknesses. So be careful using close measurement differences as a sign of a fake. Also, a cast coin is generally porous in nature. I won some fakes I deliberately bought from China years ago for an education. The porous nature of them is very evident with as much magnification as you show in this video. So I have to wonder if yours are cast or struck.

Sorry about not watching all of the video before commenting. thanks again.

Everybody hating on your video, though I don't see them, or many for that matter putting videos out about this. 🤔

I just recently bought my first rolls of silver quarters. I'm very nervous about them now.

why did you polish the genuine Standing Liberty?

Interesting duster

Awesome video! Don’t care about the people that say you need a tripod.

A trained ear will hear the silver in it when you drop these coins or ring them with another coin. Also on the acid test, I might be wrong but I thought you should wipe the acid onto a towel to see the coloring in it. It's much easier to see the color. Also , the tolerance on those weights seem correct especially with a coin that is not really worn. Those coins look like they have very little wear to them. Thanks for video. I had to just listen to most of it because I my head was disturbed from the shaking.

What would tipped me off is a key date 1932 s for junk silver price.

just curious, were they Magnetic?

That walking liberty half looks strange.....like brushed. This is a counterfeit that I would identify quick I guess. But these quarters are dangerous. I would not spot them as counterfeits immediately.

A silver coin just sounds and feels different as well

i enjoyed your video. "But" (And you knew that was coming right?) the camera shake was very bad. most times i had to look away. i think if you invest in one of those "gorilla tripods". this would steady your shots and help with the focus. all that being said, thanks for sharing.

I would defer to a metallurgist, but I was under the impression that "wear" on a coin - particularly made out of a soft-ish metal like silver or gold - is a "flattening" of the coin, rather than the metal being stripped off the coin. In other words, shouldn't a worn coin weight about the same as the published weight?

Sellers on eBay are also passing off magnetic sterling jewelry as real. EBay then sticks up for them. I got 69.1 grams of magnetic jewelry. When I asked for a partial refund I was viciously verbally attacked with derogatory remarks. They want me to return the jewelry and I was going to until they made the remark of make sure you switch out the chains. A clue the return was going to be a problem. I am contacting the atty general's office and file against this seller and eBay for allowing these type of sellers to cheat people. People were abusing native American jewelry and now it is hard to list this jewelry without authentation. What would you do? Thank you

I like to use the magnet test instead of the acid one for coins I purchase on eBay. For the magnet test you hold the coin at a 45 degree angle and drop a neodymium magnet around 10 millimeters in diameter from the top of the coin. For a real silver coin the magnet slides slowly off the coin, so if the magnet sticks to the coin or falls quickly off it then it's a counterfeit.

Wear occurs by the compression of the coin detail by being circulated. It's not so much being worn away. You are making these conclusions without consultation with any numismatic specialist.

Great info man, but for the love of Christ... get a freakin tripod! If I didn't know better Michael Fox was holding the camera! I got motion sickness compressing the couch!

I'm new to buying silver coins but don't have coin shop's in my town ,so have to buy from eBay.I understand your frustration cause I've bought a lot of fake coins by mistake myself.just be careful about your trusted seller cause I've got one and every now and then they still flip me some fakes.I always get my money back ,but have a load of these crap fakes,bugs me a bit

Your analysis here is not correct: having weighed hundreds of silver quarters I can assure you that very few weigh in at the theoretical 6.25 grams. Most will go 6.20 to 6.30, even for BU examples. Silver was 1.29 per ounce--this variance was insignificant. Also, please think about this for a minute: why would a faker go to the time and considerable expertise to fake such a low value item? That's why better date coins are faked all the time: CC dollars, 32D & 32S quarters, etc. I think you have fooled yourself here.

I never would have thought that counterfeit quarters would be made. *@&^#%%@$. Glad I got mine decades ago. Good eyes and thinking about that 1932 quarter...you never see circ'ed ones in that condition. Do those coins ring when dropped? (suspect NO) I'll bet they are pewter. Pewter can be made with a lead-tin ratio that will give the same specific gravity as silver. Bet you could hit one of those coins with a propane torch and melt it really fast.

Duster Dan, Your speech cadence was just right. Any slower and this 30 minute video could have become a 50 minute video. Good info and well presented. Probably not important but you could have used the calipers to measure the thickness of those coins. Thanks and Maranatha

The weight test did nothing change my mind on the quarters. Easily oil and grease can account for the extra weight. What now interests my mind is the idea that the Federal Reserve has been polluting its own currency with composite metals. Think about it. They receive the metal ready for stamping. Easily some quarters could have been made with a contaminated production run.

IT'S SO SIMPLE ! ANYTIME YOU GET COUNTERFEIT COINS OR PAPER MONEY FROM EBAY SELLERS, ***CALL THE FBI !!*** AND REPORT THEM ! YOU WILL SEE HOW FAST THESE SELLERS STOP THE BS !

make a magnetic coin slide if not silver coins will slide smoothly, if silver coins will drag or pause before continuing down.

I have seen so many legitimate silver coins ruined by the acid test. I would suggest avoiding it at all costs.

I was going to mention that each coin will lose weight overtime some a little some alot. But then i noticed those coins you got the NUMBERS of the date are actually a thicker Font and not exactly the same so the date is not even the same look as the real thing and i got one in my hand to double check.

The camera is too shaky...I have Vertigo and it makes me dizzy...

If you take a kleenex or paper towel and make a point out of a corner of it, and dip it into the acid on the block, you can then look at the kleenex and see which color the metal reacted. You would have only seen the outside layer's results the way you tested. Most silver plated flat wear would pass the test you did, but it would be a false positive. Specific gravity test would be more accurate method and no damage. I've had the oxidization of the coin give me a false negative testing with acid before as well.

To improve future videos you needed a tripod or another person with steady and goods hands working the camera.

You can confirm they are fake with a ping test and a cell phone to check the ring frequency

however there is a weight tolerance of .25 grams on some half dollars.

how about the Gold Coins?

I really don't think those are counterfeited. I was watching a video with one of the designers from the US mint talking about the dish of the coin and how We no longer are able to make coins the way they used to because the knowledge has been lost. If the US mint has issues making Quaters of the same quality as the old ones I doubt anybody would put the work in to pull off for 3-5 bucks

Yeah... Those are wayyyy too nice to be junk silver prices.. those should be at LEAST two, three times that... Either that or you just got an amazing deal!!!

Hopefully you turned them in. I just don't buy on ebay.

You didn't measure thickness.No need for acid test.KEY factor.Measure thickness,not just diameter.

Never buy silver from EBay. Only buy from reputable online dealers. Apmex, Provident and many others ... You will save yourself a lot of money and hassle.

Perform Specific gravity (SG) test on alloy of Silver or Gold and compare this to known 90% or 40% silver US coins --> www.attilacoins.com/Calculate_Specific_Gravidity_coin.asp . No destructive testing or coin wear, as you mentioned, thickness and weight can vary depending on coin condition. However, if the counterfeiters used real melted 90% silver to cast the coin then the SG will be the same as a real one and the SG method can't tell.

You'd think they would fake them in silver that way it would be next to impossible to tell

I think I need a Dramamine after all of that spastic camera work. Perhaps try getting a friend to hold the camera.

good video but gave me motion sick

how can they make them look so real ,totally amazing hey these guys are real pros .guess what I heard that they even make fancy oil paintings worth lots of money and some sold at various house aunctions .I bet this is an industry ..I mean look at our paper currency ..every where you go everybody holds the bills up to find certain details and markings. I wonder how much capital / monies are duplicted and counterfeited? locally then globally ? this is a problem but

So sick of this!!!! Thanks for sharing...

Support your LCS . Find the one with the lowest prices and give him your business because he's not trying to slit your throat. Don't know what else to tell you, lesson learned I hope.

Man this is good info but you got to get some camera skills. I’m getting seasick and can’t pay attention

Dude, buy a small tripod and show much of this on wide view and then you can zoom in. Your camera handling gave me a headache.

Sir, look at you paper money. Some serial numbers could be worth alot. Combos like 2233445566 or backwards 6655443322...or course those numbers aren't real, just for an expample. But if whatever the serial numbers are if they are doubled or single but one following the other or do it backwards they could be worth ALOT. A guy in my apartment building had a double stamped quarter and he wouldn't sell it to me, even though he knew nothing about coins.. He somehow put it in the soda machine at our apt. ! I wish I'd known that but oh well....