Ah, yes! DE GUSTIBUS NON EST DISPUTANDUM! (Concerning tastes, we cannot argue!)

I've been using IKES in my coin pail for eons. There's no milling left, but they sound just fine.

IT AINT THE PROP--IT'S THE PERFORMER!

Jerry CONKLIN once told me that he couldn't do a show unless he was wearing a tuxedo. In later years, he needed the money. I helped him get a school tour. He learned that he could do a show wearing nice pants, nice shirt, and a blazer. He wrote me and said, "This is 10 times easier than doing the illusion show."

I agree with most of what has been said here, that it's the performer and not the coins; however it is very difficult to do any sort of 3 Fly routine with anything besides soft coins. Clad coins are just too noisy. But that's pretty much the only trick I can think of where it makes much of a difference what kind of coins you are using.

Hi Tom…Welcome to the Café.

While soft coins can be great to do 3 Fly with, it's really not all that necessary. The trick can be performed with regular coins just as effectively. I've done it both ways and in some 3 Flys soft coins can be helpful, but the one I do most, it really doesn't matter, any such sound is of no consequence to the effect. I'm not sure it even made much of difference in Kenner's original version of the trick, Menage et Trois. Anyway, though helpful I suppose, it don't much matter in my version of it.

Again, welcome.

Well I may be making too much of the sound of one coin sliding against another. Maybe it's not something a spectator would notice. But I hate leaving anything to chance. I have your version in fact (Flyski) and at least to my ears the metallic sliding sound of one coin against another was just too much, so I switched to soft coins.

Hey, thanks for trying my work.

I guess to each his own, and I think I even mention the soft coin thing in FlySki? It certainly works good with them, but really not that much of a hinderance if doing the trick with newer coins. Any such sounds would fall behind an action of a coin flying, disappearing or appearing mostly. So, at the least, it's not a tremendously inappropriate sound that would set off any alarms. But I hear you as to how you like to do it and it certainly works pretty well that way too, admittedly much more quietly.

Again thanks for checking out my work. It's one of my few favorites, and I hope you're enjoying it.

That stores can't make profit by selling their items at cost. 20 bucks isn't bad for junk silver dollars right now given the current price of silver.

How can you tell if the silver coins are fake? Are people making fake junk silver coins, or just those that look like high quality?

Online you really can't tell -- best you can do is ensure you're dealing with a reputable seller, or at least have a good "insurance policy" to protect your purchase -- eBay, PayPal, etc, but that's still a hassle.

In person there are a number of things you can do to check if a coin is genuine.
(1) Magnet test -- as you probably know, some of the fakes (but not all) will stick to a magnet. Silver does not.
(2) Sound - Coins have a unique sound when you "ring" them. Balance the coin on the tip of your finger and tap the top edge of the rim with another coin. Compare the sound to known good coins.
(3) Weigh them -- most fakes are from metal(s) that are less dense than silver so they won't weigh as much. You can find the exact weights for US coinage online. Used coins will naturally weigh a bit less as some silver has worn off.
(4) Chemical testing -- there are test kits where you scrape off a small amount of the coin and add a few drops of a chemical. The color will change (or not) based on the kind of metal.



Because of the value of real silver, and the collectible value of certain dates, counterfeits are made of both "new" and "used" coinage.

Silver coins have not been made for a long time. what coin do you want dollars crowns european coins austro Hungarian empire ones? If you buy from a proper coin dealer you will get exactly what you want. I use uk crowns half crowns and usa dollars.

Inigmntoya: thanks for your thoughts. Seems I will need to give attention to finding reputable dealers.

Using magnets to test silver is good method, but not totally safe. You can use it as HINT if your silver coin is real or not.
If you have real silver coin, you can make it ring and compare that sound to how another coin ring. That is only way how I would be using sound test myself.
Weighting coin and measuring diameters are one good method what can be done easily. (If weight is right and coin is fake, its diameters probably are too small or too big! And if diameters are correct, it probably weight wrongly if it is fake!)

Acid test is good one, but there are still pits where to fall (Your coin can be plated with real silver, but underneath it is something else! If you don't scratch little bit underneath, you might only be testing plating.)
... But in certain situations you cannot use acid test or scratch your coin.. SO I don't talk this method here.

I don't usually test coins, but instead jewelry. I use mainly magnet, weight, oxidizing and wear marks as a guideline myself. So keep this in mind! I'm more familiar with silver and gold jewelry than coins.

There can be markings (jewelry marks or in coin something like "999 fine silver") but those can be still fake. So don't trust markings too much either! I would say it is easier to find fake coin or jewelry with markings than without markings!

My first advice would be stay away from the Ebay if you are not knowing what you are doing. I have seen too much fake coins and fake jewelry over there. You can find a real deal also, but there are a lot of fakes in move. In China, they produce cheap fake copy's pretty much from everything! You can find them in cheap price if you want to (for example fake silver dollar for 1 dollar!) But also cheaters buy them and sell them forward in full price. So be careful!

Myself, I like to stay away from private persons if possible. You just cannot know if he is honest or not. Or if he know how to separate real silver from fake silver.
And time at time I also like to stay away from small individual shops (if they give wrong impression.) Of course you can buy from ebay, you can buy from individual persons and small shops, but keep your common sense with you.

And next some tips what I use to testing silver without acid or scratching them. (In jewelry world, there are a lot of silver plated things what are sold as solid silver!)

There are couple things what you can test with magnets. Remember that magnets attach a very little to silver!
First slide magnet down of the coin. It should be sliding slowly, but still sliding. If it don't drop from the coin, it is something else than silver. If it slide too fast, coin is something else than silver once again. I recommend to Google some videos and watch how it should be sliding down.

Secondly, you can put magnet on the table and touch magnet with edge of your silver coin. If magnet stay still when you pull your coin away from the magnet, it is one good sign. If magnet follow your silver coin, it isn't silver at all. Once again, Youtube is good place to start. Watch videos and you get better idea.

And with magnets, you should ALWAYS remember that there are other metals what react to magnets similar ways (aluminum, copper etc.) So your coin can be for example copper coin and only silver plated and it still react magnet correctly. (I have seen too much copper jewelry coated with silver and sold as solid silver!)

Then wearing marks and oxidizing thing... If coin have wear marks, you might see if it is fully silver, or only plated. SO always look wear marks. IF it is oxidized, you can watch the color of oxidizing. It isn't best method once again, but when combined with other methods, it can give you some hints. (silver turn more yellow and black, copper green.)

In "coin world", People use a lot of magnets, they weight coins (you can look from charts what different coins should weight!)and they also look from charts what diameters should be. Use these 3 methods and you are in good way with coins! Once again, I recommend to use Youtube search to get better picture how this thing work. But always use these 3 methods together if possible.

I have not gone through this much process to authenticate silver coins. I take it there are no numismatic dealers in your area.

Rklew64, If you are talking to me, I have to say that there is a lot of pits where to fall. Specially if you are buying outside of the bigger and trustworthy shops.
There are a lot of scams and frauds going on. Some scammers try to make fast money with a junk. And as long as people just are going to trust that they are getting what they are paying for, problem don't go away. Scammers buy fake silver dollars from China for very cheap price and sell them forward in a lot higher price. I even have seen how some people really believe that those Chinese "silver dollars" what cost something like 1-10 dollar are real... And they sold them forward with higher price. They scam people even when they don't self realize what they are doing.
But those kind of things are mixing things up. Buy from private person and you don't know if it really is real silver coin or not. (same goes with silverware and jewelry of course! There are a lot of Chinese replicas around once again...) And if your local shop don't test silver and gold objects, they also might be selling fake items. Just please everyone, Don't buy blind! ...Unless of course it is cheap price and you like how it is looking. There is for example a lot of "antique" coins in Ebay. If you want to use them in your routine, feel free... But don't pay too much. And do not support scammers! Buy instead from some guy who already sell it as not real.

If you are buying your coins from local shop what are testing them, you are in clear waters of course. No need for further testing in that case. But if you are buying from private persons, or from flea market or from something similar, you might get fake in your hands and don't even know it. Even seller might think that it is a real deal!

Country where I'm living. All coin shops are trustworthy. But there are only 5-10 coin shops in whole country... and some of them are only internet shops. So I'm not able to walk in any coin shop where I'm living. And for those prices (30-50 euros for one silver dollar! Other silver coins easily are 50-100 euros.) I don't going to buy from there. So my coins come from not so trustworthy sources.
And when they aren't specialized in silver or jewelry, you can get pretty much anything as real deal. If there is hallmarks, that is good enough for many guys.
Some are even selling thing as real silver without any kind of hallmarks at all. I have seen spoon with correct hallmarks, but it still was silver plated copper spoon. And I have seen oxidized copper coin sold as real gold coin. One best case was yellow plastic jewelry what was labelled as "gold jewelry." It was in plastic wrap so I didn't be able to feel it, but it was just too lightweight to be anything else than piece of plastic.

Here numismatic dealers are focused on post stamps only. So I don't even bother to go in.
Antique shops buy pretty much everything what they can get for cheap price and sell them for higher price. And I can say that here are some shady dealers around! At least they aren't specialized to recognize silverware. They just buy and sell. So once again, you need to be careful.
And flea markets... Some times you can find silver and seller even didn't know that it was silver object. other times it can be labelled as silver, but it is just stainless steel.

I have been touching the world of pearls and gemstones also and over there I have seen pretty much same amount of fake ones moving around too. I'm not pro at all in this area. It is too wide area, but I know handful of tricks what are nice to use when possible. You can find a lot of glass "gemstones" and all kind of stones sold as gemstones and treated gemstones and plastic pearls and everything between of above. Magnifying glass are nice tool here also. I also carry time at time pocket microscope with me.
Just last week I found "gemstone" with certificate. Certificate was for real gemstone, but... That "gemstone" was still something what you can find from your backyard. Certificate was for another stone than what was in market. And price tag was 3 000 Euros.

I mainly use "street tests" myself. I carry small magnifying glass and magnet with me. With silver, I weight it first and use magnet to see how silverware react to magnet. If it pass those tests, then I'm looking wear marks and if I can see what is underneath. I also look how it is oxidizing, what is the color of the silver (does it look like a silver or something else.) Only after that, I'm interested what kind of hallmarks there is. If it pass and it still seems to be silver, I might buy it and test better in my home after that. If I doubt, I don't buy it. With magnifying glass I get better view of wear marks and hallmarks.
This don't take too much time at all so it is good habit to learn at least these test. They aren't fool proof, but better than nothing.

With coins, it is best to weight it, measure it and test with magnet if possible. Of course usually I don't deal with coins and silver coins what I buy are usually sold as regular coins. I might as well make some fast test, buy it and test better in home.
If you have that magnifying glass in your pocket, you can try to look details with it. Does it look like sand casting coin or as minted coin? Are there rust in your coin? wear marks? how it is oxidizing and so on.

please keep these things in your mind.
I love Ebay a lot but there is a lot fake silver, fake gold, fake antique, fake gemstones and everything fake going on. If you know what you are looking for, you can expose some of those scams in matter of seconds (and it really is fun hobby!)
Of course you don't always get item what was in picture and even if you are looking the right picture, you can still be scammed. (you don't slide magnet down of the picture!)
With Ebay, look a little bit more about from who you are going to buy your coins. If seller is sold thousands of items and feedback is positive, it is good sign. If seller is coin shop what sell in Ebay, it is good sign once again. If you can find internet shop/internet pages for that coin shop, it is even better sign. And finally, if you can find street address, phone number, owner name and all the information what you are looking for, I would buy from there.

Am I careful? Yes. How much I buy fake items by mistaken? Not so much.

I'm wanting to buy some soft coins also. It seems like Morgans are what most magicians prefer. Is there a reason I don't see anything about Peace dollars which were minted more recently than Morgans? I think they are approximately the same size and weight. Also, when it comes to half dollars, I haven't seen any demand for Franklin halves, which were also minted more recently and match Kennedy halves in size, but are silver, and thus softer. Should I be looking for Morgans rather than Peace dollars for some particular reason? Thanks!

Mickey Silver uses Peace Dollars and Shoot Ogawa uses Franklins.
Since they are newer, it may be harder to find soft ones. Fewer gaffs are made with them as well.