Most worry about fake bullion disappears with two simple habits: buy widely recognised coins and bars, and buy them from an established dealer. Do that, and the metal you receive is almost always genuine. A counterfeit market does exist, but it concentrates on a narrow set of high-value targets, and the formats most stackers actually buy sit well outside it.

This guide explains where the real risk is, the handful of buying habits that remove most of it, and the cheap checks you can run at home if you want to confirm a piece yourself. The deeper material on tungsten, coin security features, and professional testing is here if you need it, but many readers can stop after the first few sections and buy with confidence.

The short version

If you take only four things from this guide, take these. They cover the large majority of buyers without a single test.

• Buy government-minted coins of one ounce or smaller, such as the Britannia, Maple Leaf, Krugerrand, American Eagle, or Philharmonic. They carry too little value and too much design complexity for counterfeiting to pay off.
• Buy from an established dealer who tests incoming stock and offers a buyback. The price comparisons on this site are a good way to find reputable sellers.
• Keep minted bars sealed in their tamper-evident assay packaging until you have a real reason to open them.
• Treat any price below the metal's spot value as a scam. Genuine bullion is never sold below spot, for reasons covered below.

Follow those and the question of authenticity rarely comes up. Everything that follows is for larger purchases, secondary-market buys, private-seller deals, and anyone who simply wants to check a piece for themselves.

Where the real risk lies

Counterfeiting follows profit. It clusters around high-value items where a successful fake returns the most money, and it avoids cheap, hard-to-copy items where the effort is wasted. Knowing where your purchase sits on that scale tells you how much checking it deserves.

Format	Counterfeit risk	Why
Government-minted coins, 1oz and smaller	Very low	Low value per piece, complex security features, standardised weights. Any dealer spots a bad one instantly.
Small silver bars, 1oz to 10oz, from known refiners	Low	The margin on faking cheap silver is tiny. Easy to verify, and usually sold sealed.
Large silver bars, around 100oz	Medium	Worth enough to attract attention, though silver's density is still far from any cheap substitute.
Minted gold bars, 1oz to 100g	Higher	The most counterfeited format. Popular brands are copied, sometimes with tungsten cores and faked assay cards.
Large gold bars, 1kg and up	Highest	Maximum payoff per fake. Tungsten cores are hard to detect without professional equipment.

The pattern is consistent. Small sovereign coins and inexpensive silver are where most stackers spend their money, and they are also the safest things to own. Risk climbs with the value packed into a single piece, and with private-brand gold bars in particular.

Red flags when buying

A few warning signs reliably separate risky purchases from safe ones. None of them require you to handle the coin, because they are about the seller, the price, and the channel.

A price below spot, or far under the usual premium. Spot is the wholesale commodity price. Every genuine piece costs more than spot, because refining, minting, shipping, insurance, and the dealer's margin all sit on top, usually adding between 3% and 20% depending on the product. A seller offering gold at spot, or 10% to 20% beneath it, is offering something counterfeit, stolen, or misrepresented. There is no legitimate way to sell real bullion below its melt value.

The words "replica", "copy", "novelty", or "souvenir". Manufacturing replica coins is legal in China as long as they are sold as replicas, and they are listed openly on sites like Alibaba and AliExpress. They become a problem when someone buys them in bulk and relists them as genuine elsewhere. Base metals such as brass and copper are plated with gold or silver, and for gold, tungsten is sometimes used because its density is close to the real thing.

Peer-to-peer marketplaces. eBay, Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, and similar platforms are common channels for fakes. Sellers often run a "hit and run" pattern, trading for a few days under one identity before vanishing. eBay bans replica bullion, but enforcement is reactive, and fakes slip through in mislabelled listings. Buyers have lost thousands on coins sold in convincing but counterfeit grading holders.

Loose bars with no packaging or paperwork. A minted bar's sealed assay card, carrying a serial number that matches the bar, is part of its authentication. A bar sold loose cannot be resealed, and a missing card means no verifiable history. Loose bars trade at a lower premium, which a seller can use to make a suspicious price look like a bargain.

Faked packaging and grading slabs. Sealed packaging is reassuring, not proof. Counterfeiters have reproduced PAMP Suisse assay cards and PCGS and NGC grading holders, complete with holograms, barcodes, and QR codes. Some fake QR codes even link to lookalike verification websites. Only ever verify a serial number on the grading company's own domain, such as pcgs.com or ngccoin.com, never through a link printed on the packaging itself.

A quick visual check

Most fakes are crude and fail a careful look before any test is needed. Spend a minute on this before reaching for tools.

• Strike quality. Genuine coins show crisp, sharp detail. Mushy lettering, soft edges, or shallow relief point to a cast copy rather than a properly struck coin.
• Lettering and fonts. Compare the typeface, spacing, and date against a known-genuine image from the mint. Counterfeiters frequently get fonts subtly wrong.
• Edges and reeding. Reeded edges should be even, and lettered edges should match the issue. Many coins have a specific edge treatment that fakes get wrong.
• Colour and finish. A Krugerrand's 22-carat alloy gives it a distinctive orange-gold tone that is hard to imitate, and silver should not look grey or dull.
• Weight in the hand. Precious metals are dense and feel heavier than people expect. A piece that feels light for its size is a warning, though this is a rough impression rather than a measurement.

Simple tests you can do at home

If you want to confirm a piece yourself, a handful of cheap tests catch the large majority of fakes. No single test is conclusive, but a fake that passes three or four at once is very hard to build. The tools cost very little, and they are listed later in this guide.

Silver

Silver is the easiest metal to verify, because its physical properties are extreme and easy to observe.

• The magnet slide. Tilt the coin or bar to roughly 45 degrees and let a strong neodymium magnet slide down the surface. On genuine silver the magnet slides slowly, as if through treacle. The moving magnet induces electrical currents in the metal, and those currents push back against it, an effect known as Lenz's law. The braking depends on how well the metal conducts electricity, and silver is the most conductive metal there is. A magnet that sticks means a ferrous fake; one that drops freely means a non-conductive substitute. One caveat: copper and aluminium also conduct well and will slow the magnet too, so this test confirms a highly conductive, non-magnetic metal rather than silver specifically. Pair it with weight and density.
• The ice test. Silver has the highest thermal conductivity of any metal. Set an ice cube on the coin and it melts noticeably faster than on a base-metal fake, as the silver draws heat into itself.
• The ping. Balance the coin on a fingertip and tap it gently with another coin. Silver rings with a clear, sustained, high note, while base metal gives a short dull thud. Phone apps, covered below, can match the tone against known coin profiles.
• Weight and dimensions. Check both against the mint's published specification using a 0.01g scale and digital callipers. A fake that matches on weight is usually wrong on thickness or diameter.
• Specific gravity. Weigh the piece dry, then suspended in water, and calculate its density. Silver is 10.49 g/cm³, and no cheap substitute matches it. Aim to land within about 0.2 of the expected figure.

Gold

Gold is harder to verify than silver, for one specific reason covered in the next section. The everyday tests still catch crude fakes.

• Specific gravity. Gold is 19.32 g/cm³, far denser than lead, brass, or plated steel, so the water-displacement test catches all of those. It does not catch a tungsten core, as explained below.
• The ping. Gold and tungsten ring at different frequencies because they differ in stiffness, which makes the ping test one of the better defences against tungsten in coins. The phone apps cover many popular gold coins.
• The magnet. Gold is not magnetic and will not stick. Some tungsten blanks use a magnetic nickel binder, so a strong magnet can occasionally reveal a fake through its plating.
• Weight and callipers. Because tungsten's density is not an exact match for gold, a fake that is correct on weight will be very slightly wrong on dimensions. This matters most on coins with tight mint tolerances.
• Ceramic streak. Dragging gold across unglazed ceramic leaves a gold streak, while most fakes leave grey or black. This leaves a tiny mark, so use it only as a last resort, and on the rim.

Platinum

Platinum is hard to fake for a simple reason. At 21.45 g/cm³ it is denser than gold, denser than tungsten, and far denser than any affordable substitute. Iridium is denser still, but it costs more than platinum, so no cheap metal is heavy enough to imitate it.

• Specific gravity. This is platinum's strongest home test. If both the weight and the water displacement match 21.45 g/cm³, the piece is almost certainly genuine.
• Weight and dimensions. A fake heavy enough to pass would have to be visibly too large in any cheaper metal.
• The magnet slide. Platinum is very weakly attracted to a strong magnet, the opposite of gold and silver, which helps distinguish it from silver-coloured base metals.

The tungsten problem with gold

Gold has one weakness that makes it harder to verify than silver or platinum. Tungsten has almost exactly the same density, about 19.25 g/cm³ against gold's 19.32, a gap of roughly 0.3%. A bar built around a tungsten core and coated or wrapped in gold can pass a weight check, a dimension check, and even a specific-gravity test, because the two metals displace nearly the same volume.

This is a real problem, not a theoretical one. In 2012 a Manhattan dealer paid $100,000 for four 10oz PAMP Suisse bars that had passed surface XRF and scale checks; drilling revealed tungsten cores. Counterfeit operations have since produced tungsten-filled bars in 1oz, 10oz, 100g, and kilogram formats with convincing surface markings.

What does catch tungsten:

• The ping test, because tungsten is far stiffer than gold and rings at a different pitch.
• A magnet, when the fake relies on a magnetic nickel binder.
• Ultrasound, which reads the speed of sound through the bar. Sound travels through gold at about 3,240 metres per second and through tungsten at about 5,180, so an internal boundary shows up as a reading that does not match the bar's thickness. This is the professional standard for large bars.
• Precise callipers, since the small density difference leaves a weight-correct fake fractionally off on size.

What does not catch it: a standard weight check, a standard specific-gravity test, surface XRF at normal settings, and the naked eye.

The practical lesson is about format rather than testing. Tungsten cores appear in larger gold bars, where the payoff justifies the effort, and almost never in small coins, where the machining would cost more than the fake could earn. Buy small sovereign coins and the tungsten problem barely touches you. Buy large gold bars and professional verification becomes worth the cost.

Coin security features worth knowing

Modern bullion coins carry anti-counterfeiting features built into the design. You do not need to memorise them, but knowing that your coin has them, and what they look like, makes a quick check easy. The table below covers the major series.

Coin (mint)	Security features	How to check
Britannia (Royal Mint)	A latent image that shifts from a padlock to a trident, surface-animation waves, micro-text reading "DECUS ET TUTAMEN", and tincture lines	Tilt and rotate under good light. All four are visible to the naked eye.
Maple Leaf (Royal Canadian Mint)	Bullion DNA digital signature, precision radial lines, and a MintShield finish on silver	The radial lines catch the light as you tilt the coin. The Bullion DNA check needs a dealer's reader.
American Eagle (US Mint)	A reeded-edge notch at the 6 o'clock position on 2021 Type 2 coins and later, plus undisclosed covert features	Look for the small gap in the edge reeding. It is absent on pre-2021 coins.
Krugerrand (South African Mint)	A serial number on the reverse of post-2017 coins, micro laser marks on some issues, and a distinctive 22-carat orange-gold colour	Check the serial number and compare the colour against a known genuine coin.
Kangaroo and Lunar (Perth Mint)	A micro-laser-engraved letter hidden inside the design, plus a "P" mintmark	Find the micro-letter with a 10x jeweller's loupe.
Philharmonic (Austrian Mint)	A deliberately irregular reed on the edge. The gold coin is reeded; the silver is smooth	Inspect the edge. A mismatched edge type is a warning.

The Britannia is the most visually secure of the group, with four features you can check by eye. The Maple Leaf has the strongest digital system, though its Bullion DNA check needs equipment that only authorised dealers hold. At the other end, the Philharmonic relies mostly on precise die work rather than dedicated features, and pre-2021 American Eagles have none at all, so judge those on weight, dimensions, and the other tests in this guide.

Serial numbers and online verification

A serial number on its own proves little, because a counterfeiter can stamp any number on a bar. It matters only when the manufacturer keeps a database you can check against.

PAMP Suisse VERISCAN is the most buyer-friendly system. During manufacture, PAMP records the microscopic surface texture of each bar, which is unique even between identically struck pieces, much like a fingerprint. You download the VERISCAN app, scan the bar's surface with your phone, and it matches against PAMP's database. It works whether the bar is sealed in its CertiPAMP packaging or removed from it.

Royal Canadian Mint Bullion DNA stores an encrypted signature derived from a laser-engraved security mark, on gold Maple Leafs from 2014 and silver from 2015. The check takes seconds, but only at authorised dealers, because the reader is not sold to the public. The underlying technology comes from a French firm, Edgyn, and its Signoptic surface-fingerprint system.

Some other refiners, including SAM Precious Metals, offer online serial lookups for minted products. For most refiners, though, serial systems are more useful for provenance and insurance records than for active authentication.

Tamper-evident assay cards seal a minted bar inside packaging that displays a certificate of weight, purity, and serial number, designed so that any attempt to open or swap the bar leaves visible damage. As long as the seal is intact, you hold the refiner's guarantee, which is why breaking it reduces resale confidence. The caution from the red-flags section still stands, because packaging can itself be faked. Treat an intact seal as one piece of evidence, not the whole case.

Tools for testing at home

A complete home kit costs very little and covers every everyday test above.

Item	Approx. cost	What it catches
Neodymium magnet (N52)	$5 to $10	Ferrous fakes, and nickel-binder tungsten
Precision scale (0.01g)	$15 to $25	Weight discrepancies
Digital callipers	$15 to $30	Dimension discrepancies
A glass of water and a way to suspend the piece	Free	Density and specific gravity
Ping-test app	Free	Tungsten in coins, and base-metal fakes
Jeweller's loupe (10x to 20x)	$5 to $15	Micro-engraving and micro-text

That comes to roughly $40 to $80 for everything. The most useful single addition is a phone ping app. The best-maintained option in 2026 is Precious Coin Tester, on both iOS and Android, with a free tier covering hundreds of coins. Pingcoin is Android-only with a free monthly allowance, and the long-running BullionTest app still works but has not been updated in years.

Two devices are worth it for serious or higher-value buyers:

• Sigma Metalytics Precious Metal Verifier, from about $999 for the entry model. It measures electrical conductivity through packaging and distinguishes gold from tungsten on coins and thin bars, which makes it the standard tool for small dealers. It cannot see deep into thick bars, so it will not catch a tungsten core in a large one.
• Portable ultrasound, from a few hundred dollars, with consumer units aimed at stackers around $460. This is the tool that catches tungsten cores in large bars, by reading the speed of sound through the metal.

Getting it tested professionally

If you would rather have an expert confirm a piece, several routes exist.

Your dealer, free, when you sell. Every established dealer tests incoming metal as part of buying it, usually with XRF alongside weight and dimension checks. If you sell a piece back, that testing happens at no charge to you. This is the simplest authentication most people will ever need.

XRF analysis. An X-ray fluorescence gun reads a metal's surface composition in seconds without damaging it, and dealers, many jewellers, and pawnbrokers use it routinely. As a standalone service for something bought elsewhere it is less commonly advertised, though postal testing services exist, with one UK example charging roughly £50 to £95 by size. The limitation matters: XRF reads only the surface, so a tungsten-cored bar with thick gold cladding can pass it.

Coin grading. Services such as NGC and PCGS authenticate and seal coins in tamper-evident holders, with fees starting around $20 to $40 per coin. This suits collectible coins better than plain bars, and the sealed holder also makes a future sale easier.

Ultrasound, for large bars. Where tungsten is a genuine concern, ultrasound is the non-destructive answer, and some dealers offer it. Drilling, the old method, is destructive, reduces value, and only checks the single spot drilled, so it has largely fallen out of use. For large COMEX-deliverable silver bars, serial numbers, refinery assay stamps, and documented certificates are the primary authentication, backed by the refiner's records.

If you think you've bought a fake

Act promptly, because most consumer protections and dealer policies are time-sensitive. Start with the seller. A reputable dealer will want to know, and will usually refund a genuine mistake, because their reputation depends on it. Where you can, pay by a method with buyer protection, since a card or PayPal claim is often the fastest route to your money back. Keep the item, the packaging, and every record, and do not alter the piece.

If the seller will not help, or you believe the sale was deliberate fraud, escalate to the authorities. Two kinds of body are usually involved: a consumer-protection agency for a dispute with a business, and a police or fraud-reporting channel when a crime has occurred.

Who to contact, by country

The table lists the main routes for the countries this site covers. Where two are given, the first is the consumer or fraud-reporting body and the second is the criminal route.

Country	Where to report
United Kingdom	Action Fraud for the fraud, and Trading Standards via the Citizens Advice consumer helpline for the trader
United States	The FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov, and the FBI's IC3 for online sales
Canada	The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, plus your local police for a criminal complaint
Australia	Scamwatch, plus your state police
New Zealand	The Commerce Commission for trader conduct, and NZ Police for fraud
Ireland	An Garda Síochána for the fraud, and the CCPC for consumer rights
South Africa	SAPS, via Crime Stop on 08600 10111, and the National Consumer Commission
Singapore	The Singapore Police Force, whose Commercial Affairs Department handles this
Hong Kong	The Customs and Excise Department, which handles counterfeit goods

For a coin or bar branded by a specific mint, the mint itself often wants to hear about counterfeits, and can sometimes confirm a fake from clear photographs.

Protect your resale value

Making a future sale easy starts the day you buy. A piece with clear provenance and intact packaging sells faster and at a better price, and it spares you the testing, or even drilling, that loose and undocumented metal can invite.

• Keep minted bars sealed in their assay packaging.
• Keep receipts and invoices, which establish where the piece came from.
• Photograph serial numbers and certificates.
• Favour coins and bars from recognised mints and refiners, which any dealer can authenticate quickly.