The $20 note features a portrait of President Jackson on the front of the note and a vignette of the White House on the back of the note. A unique combination of eleven numbers and letters appears twice on the front of the note. The design includes series years 1990, 1993, and 1995. All the fake Pop’s are shipped from China, which is ironic, as the official ones are made there. Basically, if the seller has to ship it from China, it’s a fake, no matter how good it looks. Another well known website that sells Chinese Fake Funkos is Wish – so avoid this place too.

Anything can be faked these days. Counterfeiters only need a means and a motive, and with such high values attached to precious metals, silver included, and with a wealth of technology and materials at their disposal, they have all they need to create fake silver. Fortunately, silver is quite a unique element and most fake silver consists of cheap metals that have very little in common with the real deal, making them easy to spot.

How to Avoid Fake Silver

You should always buy from a reputable dealer and a certified refiner. If you stick with legitimate bullion dealers, then you won't have an issue with illegitimate silver. Here at GoldBroker, for instance, we only sell COMEX deliverable bars, which is the standard for all legitimate silver in this industry, and ensures that when you’re buying larger quantities of this precious metal, you’re getting exactly what you pay for.

One of the worst things you can do is to purchase from eBay, as fakes are rife on this auction site. They are passed around from one dealer and one user to another, often because they are oblivious that the item is fake. There are also many dealers that buy wholesale fake coins and bars from China, passing these off as legitimate and profiting from the large margins.

This practice is becoming less prevalent as more and more people learn how to test for fake silver, but for every clued-up investor, there are ten who will buy without thinking and without checking, and this is what the dealers rely on.

How to Spot Fake Silver

When it comes to determining the legitimacy of a silver coin or bar, your eye and your experience can be the best judge. So, before you start applying corrosive chemicals and tests to your potential silver (we’ll discuss these shortly) be sure to follow these steps:

Stamp: Most countries require pure silver to be officially stamped. This stamp will include details of the silver and it is usually more prominent on bars, sometimes covering the entire face. Not all countries require this, so you may still have real silver even if there is no stamp.
Magnifying Glass: Take a closer look at the stamp using a magnifying glass and find something known as the International Silver Stamp Rating. This will display a three digit number indicating purity.
Imperfect Coins: If a bullion coin has been faked, then it should be immediately visible. Many fakes are of a low quality. The design will not be as raised or as detailed, the luster will be poor and the strike may be off-center. If the coin is old, it may also show signs of rust or other types of damage that are just not common with silver.
Mint Mark: Many fakers will not include mint marks or will create poor copies of legitimate mint marks. These are very easy to spot.

How to Test for Fake Silver

There are a few tests that you can do to determine whether the silver you have is fake or not. Some of these are more effective than others, but all can be used to detect something that is either fine silver, sterling silver or a cheap base metal.

Neodymium Magnets: These magnets are commonly used to test silver and can be bought fairly cheaply and in an array of sizes. Typically, silver stackers will buy neodymium magnets no bigger than a pea and then place these on the silver bar or coin. If it is real, then when they tilt or tip the silver, the magnet will gently slide. This is because real silver has a very weak magnetic effect. If the magnet does not attach in anyway, or if it sticks, then it is not real silver. This test is not recommended for large bars because while it will determine whether or not the surface is real silver, it will not tell you whether or not the core is real silver.
Ice Test: Silver has amazing conductive properties, and many experts can predict whether a piece is fake or not just by holding it in their hands. You can test this conductivity by place some ice on the silver and then placing another piece of ice a few inches away from it. The ice on the silver should begin to melt immediately, as the silver will have retained heat from your hand, whereas the ice next to it will melt slowly.
Acid Test: This uses a chemical analysis test and may damage your silver. You can purchase silver acid tests online, but they should only be used as a last resort. These tests will tell you whether it is real, how pure it is, and even what metal it is if it is not real.
Sound Test: Silver emits a ringing sound when it is tapped, much like a bell, whereas many cheaper metals will emit a dull thud. Tap the piece with something metallic and listen to the sound it produces. You can also drop it onto a flat surface, as it should produce the same ringing sound.
Bleach Test: Real silver tarnishes very quickly, whereas many of the metals commonly used to fake it do not. So, place a drop of bleach on the piece and then wait. If there is an immediate reaction, with the piece tarnishing and blackening, then you may have real silver on your hands. Silver plated items will also pass this test though.

The purpose of this article and its accompanying video is to educate consumers and retailers on how to spot the differences between real and fake Trijicon MRO and RMR optics. I could start this article with something like 'Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and Trijicon must be feeling very flattered…' but in reality, these fake optics hurt Trijicon, they hurt retailers, they hurt consumers, and they even hurt America. Allow me to explain.

Trijicon is hurt, of course, because consumers buy fakes thinking they're getting the real thing, thus taking money away from Trijicon. Those consumers are hurt for an obvious reason – they pay too much for an optic they were told was of a certain quality, when in reality it isn't. Retailers are hurt when unscrupulous people buy real optics, switch them for fakes in the box, then return the fakes for a full refund as cashiers and customer service counter folks often can't tell the difference.

You're probably with me so far, but how about America? How is America hurt by fake optics? Well, as I was discussing the MRO emitter position with a Trijicon manager, an idea suddenly popped into my head. When people buy fake optics, they're rewarding unscrupulous overseas companies and helping them produce better optics. These optic companies could then sell their new and improved products to just about anyone, including countries and organizations that would seek to do America and its people harm. These clone manufacturers are not like the European optics manufacturers that make quality products and compete above board. I try not to get on jingoistic soapboxes any more often than necessary, but I do see a real problem here.

Now, on to the meat and potatoes of the topic. When it comes to both optics- any fake optic, really – you're looking for details.

Starting with the MRO, you need to pay attention to things like the forge lines, the fit of the adjustment mechanisms in the body of the optic, the font used to mark things such as '1 click = ½ MOA' and so on. The fake MRO we use as an example in the video has GENERIC CHINESE INSTRUCTION MANUAL FONT for some of its laser markings, while the real Trijicon optic, needless to say, does not.

The adjustment mechanisms on the real MRO are black and fit perfectly in the body of the optic, both in terms of being level with and parallel to an imaginary line on the surface of the body as well as being perfectly centered within the holes in the body, while the adjustment mechanisms on the fake are silver in color and are not level or centered. The real MRO has a forged housing/body with corresponding forge marks. The fake isn't forged but has what almost appear to be file marks where the forge line would be, meaning they're trying to make it look as if the forge line has actually been removed in some quality control or manufacturing step, but Trijicon

Fake But Real Money No Markings