A digital scale can really do magic. Yes, a digital scale will help you to authenticate gold coins, silver, coins, platinum coins, palladium coins, medals, and rounds. There are many tools available to authenticate coins but the first tool used will always be a digital scale. Even the most experienced coin appraiser will always start with weighing a coin. This is the first and most important step.
Most coins are faked badly; so badly that the weight of faked coins is mostly not accurate. Thus checking the weight is most important. It’s so easy, fast and important. A very common and often faked coin is the American Gold Eagle. A one ounce American Gold Eagle coin is supposed to weigh exactly 33.931 grams. You wouldn’t believe how many bad fakes coin appraisers have seen over their career. The good news is that identifying the fake is pretty simple. Buy a digital gold scale, weigh your coin, and compare the determined weight with the official weight of the coin you want to authenticate. The US Mint, for instance, and most other important mints have their coin specifications published. It’s fairly easy to find and compare. Is the weight off, better get skeptical and consult a coin dealer for a final check.
Most people don’t know about this super easy way to authenticate gold coins or even gold bars. One of the most faked gold bars is the one ounce Credit Suisse gold bar. Experienced appraisers can tell that they are faked just by taking a brief look at those bars. They all look the same and are very easy to identify for an expert. But you may not be an expert but you want to prevent yourself or a friend from buying into a worthless item.
Buy a gold scale, weigh the gold bar and get a better idea about your item. Most faked gold bars will not show the right weight on your scale.
Coin Fake
This is a "great fake" that can be easily identified. The coin clearly says "1 ounce fine silver" but the weight displayed on the scale says 28.68 grams. 1 ounce weighs exactly 31.1 grams what makes it easy to identify the fake.
More ways to test coins and bars!
You don’t need expensive equipment to test your gold coins or gold bars. If you already bought a digital scale, buying two other very inexpensive items may be helpful: a magnet and a caliper. A magnet can be bought for less than 5 dollars and a caliper can be found for 10 dollars. A private coin collector doesn’t need more.
The Magnet
The magnet is almost as important as the digital scale. Some dealers always carry a magnet with them. It’s a very bad sign if a gold, silver, platinum or palladium coin is magnetic. Those metals are diamagnetic and will repel a magnet. If your coin or bar sticks to your magnet, you got a severe problem. You can say with certainty, that you got a faked and worthless piece. Owning a magnet and a digital scale is great. But it can even get better: buy a digital scale, a magnet, and a caliper.
The Caliper
You probably used your digital scale and you received a weight deviation back? You also used your magnet but the coin doesn’t seem to be magnetic? That’s the time when the caliper comes in. Use the manufacturer’s official specifications and measure your item carefully. A caliper is usually providing results in inch and millimeter. Use millimeters to measure your coin or bar. Compare the measurements with the manufacturer’s data to know what’s going on. If both, your determined weight and the measurements are different from the manufacturer’s specs, you face an extremely high risk of having a faked item present.
Authenticating a Coin with magnet and caliper is possible
In most cases, it’s really possible to authenticate a coin with a digital scale, a magnet, and a caliper. For con artists, it’s very hard to create a fake representing the correct weight. Some fakes may show the correct weight but because of the specific weight of gold or silver, the measurements have to be different. Gold, silver, platinum, and palladium are very heavy compared to metals used for faked items. For instance, copper is commonly used for faked items. It’s pretty inexpensive in comparison to gold and silver but copper’s density is only 8.96 g/cm³ while the density of pure gold is 19.32 g/cm³. Two items, the fake made of copper with gold plating and the authentic piece made of real gold, have to have different dimensions. The fake will be significant bigger than the authentic piece.
Gold Bar Fake
This is another fake that can be identified easily. Gold is a diamagnetic material and a magnet would be repelled and not attracted. There is no more investigation needed: this bar is a fake without any monetary value.