My metal verifier is telling me I'm rich
In this post I share a Gold 1967 Kennedy half...but wait a minute it doesn't look very gold dosen't feel very gold and a Kennedy half of that year is supposed to be clad not gold but it passes the conductivity test for gold on my sigma metalytics metal verifier.
And it's not the only "gold" coin that I apparently have.
All these coins are part silver but they are passing the gold test.
Now back to our clad Kennedy half (%40 silver %60 copper)
Oh look it passes the 80% Canadian silver test
It also passes the %90 pre 1945 us test
Passed the 90% pre 1900 us test
Dosen't quite pass the sterling test
And fails the test designated for this coin 90% 1960 us test
Now don't get me wrong I'm pretty disappointed with the false reading but at the same time I understand the limitation and there are also other test one can do that can weed out fakes, I will also talk about another type of metal verification method using a fancy tool with much greater accuracy and ease of use.
But let's start with the basic so first thing you should have is a small neodymium magnet, precious metals will not be attracted to it, if the magnet attaches to your speciment its no good. Another cheap tool is a ruler or calipers and a scale, You can reference google or a coin catalogue to get the dimensions and weight to confirm your speciment matches it's description.
Now the best method is unfortunately the most expensive, an XRF analyzers blast x-rays fluorescence at the speciment and reads the secondary x-ray
fluorescence that are excited by the primary X-rays from the machine, each element produces a different type of signal and this machine can tell you the exact make up of the speciment.
Like I mentioned this machine is very expensive starting at 15 thousand us dollars and it's also expensive to maintain if it brakes down or when the x-ray reaches it lifespan and needs to be replaced for thousands of dollars, your best bet maybe getting a local jewellery or coin shop to check some samples for you If they have the machine and are willing to do it.
That is all for today's post thanks for stopping by your support is truly appreciated if you have any questions don't hesitate to ask.
Is the tool error?
My secondary coin shop has an XRF analyzer but they charge $10 per test item but if I ask them nice and it is a coin I am interested in from their own stock I won't be charged.
It is a handy reliable tester.
Well I get, x-ray tubes have a lifespan and it's thousands to replace, I was thinking of getting a used portable xrf but after I learned how much the repairs and replacements are I realized its really way too much for my operations at this time but eventually I hope to get one and it's possible we get cheaper machines in the future
This is the first time I would be seeing such machine.
The machine is a must have thing for gold stackers
This machine no doubt is really expensive.
These machine will quite be capable of measuring the purity level of the coin also
These machines are so clever. It can detect which metals are genuine !
I do not get it. Have seen good readings on youtube (of gold and silver coins). There was a black mark between the [ ..... ] or maybe it was a zero like yours. I order with reputable dealers only. Never tested anything apart from the weight. (1 old expensive Panda I had one of a gramm or so)
It works fairly well for the most part but it's not a 100 full proof and could possibly pass a fake, that's why it's important to have the experience and some basic tools like a magnet calipers and a scale , it would be incredible difficult to have a fake coin pass all the tests.