I am trying to find an alternative to where I buy my silver coins/rounds in New Zealand (Bullion Deals). They gave me some strange buffalo rounds - poor minting, poor detail - they said 1 troy oz .999 Silver After a lot of time online I found that they are possibly minted by CMC Mint in China who also mint replica/plated coins which weight & look the same as real ones. These are being sold as real on eBay Here is a link to where you can get the fakes - full custom able The ones supplied to me by Bullion Deals where very similar to this, except where Silver, wording different , the Indian & buffalo are the same but with less detail (as if the stamp was worn when the coin minted) http://www.aliexpress.com/item/CMC-...-Plated-Buffalo-Indian-Round/32222347067.html but when I did the ice cube test side by side with a Canadian Maple, they was still 50% ice left when all melted on the Maple. This leads me to believe that the coins are not the same metal. Also,I was not convinced with the ping test also. I have bought from eBay some neodymium magnet to make a test slide - Silver has the property of resisting magnetic fields so will slide down the magnets slower than non- silver. Using several different tests I believe you can determine whether you have fine Silver or not. I have contacted Bullion Deals and they tell me that they are certain the coins are .999 fine Silver and are happy to replace Replying to their email I asked the question why it was so difficult finding the coins online?? Spending around 6 or more hours searching, finally getting to The Rising Sun Mint, which has since changed their name to Rising Star Mint , sells the same products as CMC Mint for way over double the price. Seems CMC Mint is the retail side. Initially I ordered 25 (Highland Mint) 1 oz buffalo's & 50 1/2 oz buffalo's on immediate shipping (cost $36.00 Auck - Hamilton) They where unable to supply so agreed to some 1 oz bars / 10 oz bars / & coins (suspect buffalo, not the same as previous I ordered) Help, I need to find other suppliers here in New Zealand I only get small batches at a time 6 - 8 weekly 20 - 50 oz
Just found this Re: Rising Sun Mint...Legit? Is Rising Sun Mint Legit ? The Truth is No it is not a mint its just a brand of products, Some of the products are real solid silver and some of the products are solid silver with gold plating and some of the products are just copper bars/coins plated with silver or gold . Rising sun mint is produced by CMC mint which has no part of the Rising Star Mint, Inc. of U.S.A You can find some of the CMC mint products with both the CMC logo on the back as well as the Rising sun mint logo which the CMC mint has been changing most of their products to contain the CMC mint logo now and doing away with the rising sun mint brand NOT CHANGING THE name to Rising Star Mint, Inc. Rising Star Mint, Inc. stocks and sells only the CMC mint and Rising sun mint products that are .999 pure solid silver or the 24k gold over pure .999 solid fine silver products from The CMC mint. NO GOLD OR SILVER PLATED COPPER BARS!!!!!!!!!!from the CMC mint or Rising sun mint. Rising Star Mint produces All Rising Star Mint Products Right Here in the U.S.A and Only produces .999 solid Silver products all of which go through what we call a true minted coin process and can only be purchased through the Rising Star Mint of U.S.A. A true minted coin is cut out of a sheet of pure .999 solid silver then polished to a mirror finish then struck by a die. the same way the U.S mint produces Their Solid Silver Coins, The difference really stands out side by side compared to other processes that are less costly that Mold the coin instead of striking it with a Die. And any silver piece 1 gram or smaller cannot be produced by being struck with a die they must be molded. 100mills = 100 millimeters gold/silver plating not solid gold or solid silver usually over a solid copper bar and Rising Star Mint, Inc. (DOES NOT Produce, handle or sell these period.) .999 fine silver= Solid/pure silver .925 sterling silver=is mostly silver mixed with just a small amount of copper (.075) to make it stronger for jewelery 24k gold is pure gold anything less than 24k is mixed with other elements such as nickel, silver & copper Thank You Very Much for reading this if anyone has any questions please feel free to contact me at [email protected] with your questions I will try to reply as soon as I can The Rising Star Mint, Inc. Copy Right 2010-2013
Cheers for the heads up m8. Oi, that ice test has never worked for me.. I'm never too sure what to look for as the ice melts I love the magnet slide test for instant results..
With the ice test you need identical size ice cube & identical size coins - Silver is the best conductor of temperature there fore best heat sink. If both coins are the same .999 Silver the ice will melt at the same rate.If one has only a proportion of silver 50%.. the ice will take longer to melt. This is not a definitive test but one of a few you can do. With the coins in question I did the ping test first- not satisfied with the ping test I then did the ice test with the Canadian Maple. In this case the difference was striking, enough to want to return & swap with known good coins. With the amount of Chinese fakes starting to filter through as legitimate Silver bullion I suggest testing all you buy. I have even seen where they have bought a good Silver bar & hollowed out (Leaving original front & back) replaced with a filler
I buy NZ Mint coins. Directly from the source, no problems at all. They come in very compact tubes suitable for stacking. Silver ferns, lunars, or turtles, all are the same price. For monster boxes of maples, ASEs, or Philarmonics I can recommend PrimeBullion for their excellent buy back price.
