Authenticate your Silver 1 oz Panda

How to spot a fake Silver Panda

The 30 g Silver Panda is China's main silver bullion coin, struck in .999 fine silver since 2016. The panda design changes almost every year, and the coin sells at a higher premium than many silver bullion coins, which makes it a common target for counterfeiters. Most fake silver coins fail simple checks. Work through them in order and combine several; no single test proves a coin is genuine.

What fakes exist

• Silver-plated base metal. Copper, brass or a nickel alloy with a thin silver coating. The most common kind, usually light or the wrong size.
• "Copy" or "replica" coins. Sold openly as replicas online, often in a nickel alloy ("German silver", which contains no silver), and sometimes resold as genuine.
• Struck counterfeits. Made with fake dies, sometimes in low-grade silver. Close to the real design but not quite right.
• Cast copies. Poured into a mold taken from a real coin. Soft details and a grainy surface.
• Wrong design for the date. Because the panda changes yearly, fakes sometimes pair one year's design with another year's date.

The checks, in order

1. Weight

A genuine coin should weigh 30.00 g. Use a scale that reads to 0.01 g and check it with a calibration weight first.

• A coin that is clearly light is a strong warning sign. Copper and brass are less dense than silver, so a plated fake of the right size is usually well under weight.
• A correct weight doesn't prove the coin is genuine on its own, so carry on with the other checks.

2. Diameter and thickness

Measure with digital calipers and compare against the facts box on this page. To reach the right weight with a lighter metal, a fake has to be thicker or wider, so a coin with the right weight but the wrong thickness is a fake. Measure in more than one direction to check it is round.

3. Design for the year

Check the panda design against the stated year. With few exceptions, each year has its own design, so compare your coin against China Mint images or a reference such as NGC Coin Explorer or PCGS CoinFacts. A design that doesn't belong to that date means the coin is fake.

4. Strike and surface quality

Look at both sides under good light with a 10x loupe, ideally next to a coin you know is genuine or high-resolution dealer photos.

• Obverse: the Temple of Heaven should be crisp, with distinct columns and roof detail, and the Chinese characters should have clean, even strokes.
• Reverse: the panda's fur texture, eyes and the bamboo should be sharp and well defined.
• Warning signs: soft or "melted" detail, wrongly shaped characters, a grainy or pitted surface, small bubbles, or a color that looks too grey, too yellow, or too bright and plastic for silver.

5. Edge

Look at the whole reeded edge under magnification. The reeding should be even all the way round. Uneven reeds, flat spots, or a line running around the edge (a sign of casting or a two-part coin) are reasons to reject it.

6. Magnet

Silver isn't magnetic. If a strong neodymium magnet sticks to the coin, it is fake.

You can also try the slide test: hold the coin at about 45 degrees and let the magnet slide down it. On silver, which conducts electricity very well, the magnet slides noticeably slowly. On a non-magnetic fake made of a poorer conductor, such as a nickel alloy, it slides faster. The effect is easiest to judge against a coin you know is genuine, and copper also slows the magnet, so treat this as a supporting check, not proof.

7. Ping test

A coin's ring depends on its metal, size and shape. A genuine Silver Panda has a clear, long ring at a characteristic set of pitches, and a coin made of a different metal usually sounds different, often shorter or duller. Use the ping test at the top of this page: balance the coin on a fingertip, tap it gently with another coin, and compare.

The ping test is one strong check among several, not a final verdict. Background noise, how you hold the coin, a capsule, or damage like a bend or rim knock can all affect the result, and some fakes may ring close enough to pass. If the result is unclear, take the coin out of its capsule, try again somewhere quiet, and combine it with the other checks.

8. Ice test, specific gravity and XRF

• Ice test: silver conducts heat very well, so an ice cube on a genuine coin melts noticeably faster than on most base metals. It's a quick comparison, best done next to a known genuine coin, and it can't reliably separate silver from copper.
• Specific gravity (weighing in air and in water) is a good way to catch plated fakes and low-grade alloys.
• XRF, offered by many dealers, reads the surface composition. It's useful for low-purity alloys, but can be fooled by thick plating.

Tips for specific dates

• 2016 onwards: 30 g, marked in grams. Check the weight against 30.00 g.
• Before 2016: 1 oz coins (and different early issues). Check them against the correct specification for the date. Older and lower-mintage dates carry collector premiums, which makes them more attractive to counterfeit, so take extra care with them.
• Graded coins: fake NGC and PCGS holders exist. Check the certification number on the grader's website (NGC, PCGS) and compare the coin with any photos on record.

If you suspect a fake

1. Stop. Don't add it to your holdings or pay any more for it, and keep the packaging and payment records.
2. Test further. Repeat the checks carefully, and compare against a coin you know is genuine if you can.
3. Get a second opinion from an established bullion dealer, who can usually test it with XRF.
4. Contact the seller and use your buyer protection or payment dispute process if you bought it recently.
5. Don't sell it on or pass it to someone else as genuine. Report it to the platform you bought it on.

Buying from an established dealer, and being wary of any offer well below the usual market price, avoids most problems.

For the gold version, see the Gold Panda guide.