However, they don’t recommend it as an investment because it isn’t hallmarked.
But, i think it would be fairly easy to prove that it is pure silver without a destructive test or expensive testing equipment.
My idea is a water displacement test. Take equal weights of shot with a known amount of silver, say a 31.1 gram .999 round. Then, the water displacement of both should be exactly equal.
Your test doesn’t prove that it’s silver; it proves that it has the same density as silver. It could well be some base metal alloy that has the same density as silver and appears superficially the same.
Copper and nickel are both close to silver; wrap a cupro-nickel alloy sheath around a lead core, and getting a perfect match is left as an exercise for the student. For added verisimilitude, electroplate with actual silver.
The reason why the eureka test is such a good one for gold is because it’s really hard to substitute something of similar density (tungsten’s not a bad fit, but substituting tungsten for gold comes with problems of its own).
As the weight/volume calculation shows AVERAGE density, it doesn’t even show that the item is homogenise, it could be some lead, some brass (or other filler), and silver over the top. The silver bought off ebay is often a silver dipped billet of junk.
Oh its not even bullion, its ‘shot’ like its just reclaimed from jewellry… said to be 0.999 but what is it really ? and why is it SPOT price if its not bullion ? It could be a little above the price you’d pay someone for beat up silverware.
It might just be pure silver. Perhaps it’s the leftover silver from some factory process; they could have sold it to a metal refinery but they would have gotten something less than spot. So on the greater fool theory, they offer it for sale at slightly above spot. Clever on their part.
There’s your answer. If you want to go to all of that trouble to prove it has real value, there’s a bridge I can sell you. I only take 1964 Kennedy half dollars at face value, though.
The folks on “Pawn Stars” use nitric acid to confirm it’s silver or not. They also take core samples or cut a small notch to get at the deeper material and check that, too.
What is your goal with regarding to possibly purchasing this silver? Do you want to use it in some industrial process? Do you want to make jewelry? Or do you view this as a cheap way to buy silver as an investment?
