Acceptable weight range for 999 silver

[AndreaGail]

So what is everyones comfort level for a range around the magical 31.1 mark. Most of mine weights in roughly .1-.2 over or under on the cheapo scale I use, which seems to be acceptable. But a generic round I recently purchased (more specifically this "silver eagle" coin produced by the Letcher mint dated 1974) came in at a staggering 31.7

Should that be cause for concern or just an anomaly?

[madfranks]

That's only a 1.9% difference. Maybe that round was struck on a slightly thicker planchet than normal. I'm no expert on counterfeits, but the few silver fakes I've ever seen have all been much lighter than silver. Less than 2% on the heavy side wouldn't bug me.

[DMac]

That's only a 1.9% difference. Maybe that round was struck on a slightly thicker planchet than normal. I'm no expert on counterfeits, but the few silver fakes I've ever seen have all been much lighter than silver. Less than 2% on the heavy side wouldn't bug me.

Likewise madfranks. I've come across fakes of ASE, Chinese Pandas and all manner of old US coinage (morgan, peace, different liberty coins). All were several grams lighter than they should have been.

[AndreaGail]

I appreciate the input guys!

That was my initial feeling as well, always nice to have some reassurance though from the bright minds of gs-us

[madfranks]

I have six of these little hand poured PG&G bars and each one of them is slightly overweight. I think if anything it's a testament to the integrity of those who make the coins/bars.

[Skirnir_]

I'd suggest doing an acid test just in case.

[1970 silver art]

So what is everyones comfort level for a range around the magical 31.1 mark. Most of mine weights in roughly .1-.2 over or under on the cheapo scale I use, which seems to be acceptable. But a generic round I recently purchased (more specifically this "silver eagle" coin produced by the Letcher mint dated 1974) came in at a staggering 31.7

Should that be cause for concern or just an anomaly?

A lot of the silver art bars and silver art rounds have a weight variance that ranges from 30.4 grams to 32.5 grams based on my experience of handling and weighing a lot of them. That weight variance seems to be very common on silver bullion that was minted in the 1970's. Apparently, the quality control of the silver rounds and silver bars that were minted in the '70's was not that good. It is not a concern to me since that seems to be common for 1-oz silver that old.

[chad]

i have 30 or 40 monarch 1 ounce hand poured bars and all of them except 3 are slightly overweight.

[horseshoe3]

A lot of the silver art bars and silver art rounds have a weight variance that ranges from 30.4 grams to 32.5 grams based on my experience of handling and weighing a lot of them. That weight variance seems to be very common on silver bullion that was minted in the 1970's. Apparently, the quality control of the silver rounds and silver bars that were minted in the '70's was not that good. It is not a concern to me since that seems to be common for 1-oz silver that old.

Are the silver art bars stamped or poured? I could see a lot more variation in poured bars. With stamped bars, they are rolling a whole sheet to a known thickness and then punching out planchets.

[gunDriller]

i measured a Standing Liberty round that i carry around in my pocket.

31.21 grams.

i tried to calibrate the JScale, a 100 gram cheapo digital scale.

that didn't work, the 100.0 gram calibration weight came in at 99.94 grams.

not sure what to estimate about the silver round but it looks a little over.

[Dogman]

Most digital scales I have seen are very sensitive to temp and any drafts in their locations. Not really sure about the kind that shut themselves off quickly when not in use. The ones I have, have to sort of warm up before use and their accuracy will drift by several 10's of milligrams until they settle down, and even then when I check with my calibration weights they will be off sometimes by a few milligrams.

But weighing on the + side by a little is not bad, most of my coins do not exactly weigh on the money, they are all a small tad heavy.

[steyr_m]

I'm not an expert, but I thought "the acid test" was for gold.

[mamboni]

I'm not an expert, but I thought "the acid test" was for gold.

You're correct - it is. Someone is being a comedian.

[1970 silver art]

Are the silver art bars stamped or poured? I could see a lot more variation in poured bars. With stamped bars, they are rolling a whole sheet to a known thickness and then punching out planchets.

Those '70's silver art bars are stamped. I suspect that the weight variation in those silver art bars has to do with the quality control of the minting process during the '70's in that there was no check to see if they were underweight when they got minted. That is just a guess on my part.

As I mentioned earlier, that 30.4 to 32.5 gram weight variation seems to occur on only silver art bars that were minted in the 1970's (especially early '70's). Specifically speaking, several of those underweight bars seemed to be minted by the following private mints:

1.) Madison Mint - I have seen the weight of those '70's bars from this mint range from 30.6 to 31.5 grams when I weighed them on my digital scale. Those underweight Madison Mint bars that I had did pass the "ring test" and I was not worried about them after that.

2.) Ceeco Mint - Almost each silver art bar from this mint that I used to have weighed between 30.7 to 31.0 grams when I weighed them in the past. The ones that I had from this private mint passed the "ring test". This seems to be the private mint that has the most number of underweight bars based on my past experience of weighing them.

3.) Colonial Mint - A few silver art bars from this mint were underweight and there was one that I used to have that was underweight by as much as 0.7 grams (30.4 grams). If one of those types of bars are underweight, it will usually weigh between 30.6 to 31.0 grams. The ones that I had from this mint passed the "ring test". Most of the ones that I have weighed 31.1 grams or slightly heavier.

I also had some that were overweight by as much as 32.5 grams. Some of the ones that stood out to me for being overweight were some certain '70's Hamilton Mint bars and a few '70's Mother-Lode Mint bars. Some of the silver art bars that I had from the '80's did not have that wide variation in weight like the ones that were minted in the 1970's. I suspect that the quality control of the production process improved in that decade of the '80's.

I would expect 1-oz silver bars of all types and 1-oz rounds of all types that were minted in the last 10 years to have a much narrower weight variation (30.9 to 31.4 grams) but I am just guessing here since I mainly concentrate on collecting rare silver art bars from the '70's. Brand name silver bars and silver rounds such as Engelhard and Johnson Mathey to weigh around 31.1 grams give or take 0.2 grams. Engelhard Prospectors in particular should weigh around that 31.1 mark with a weight variation on the plus side of 0.3 grams (weighing up to 31.4 grams).

[gunDriller]

Most digital scales I have seen are very sensitive to temp and any drafts in their locations. Not really sure about the kind that shut themselves off quickly when not in use. The ones I have, have to sort of warm up before use and their accuracy will drift by several 10's of milligrams until they settle down, and even then when I check with my calibration weights they will be off sometimes by a few milligrams.

But weighing on the + side by a little is not bad, most of my coins do not exactly weigh on the money, they are all a small tad heavy.


i like the old time Balance scale with the brass weights.

but what i got right now is 3 digital scales. the Salter Brecknell PB-500, i like that one.

and an Office Depot letter scale. i have used it to weigh computer parts that i sold for metal content, and never got any questions about my stated weights from the buyer.