Pawn Shop Owner Claims Silver Bar from Provident Metals is a Fake

[TXSILVERMAN]

I had a similar experience with a coin shop. I gave my daughter a pendent that I made myself with a freedom Girl round from SBSS. I have never had a problem with SBSS rounds. I believe they are to small of issue for someone to attempt to go to the trouble of creating fakes. Anyway, I test every batch that comes in and had done an silver acid test on the batch I bought. I also did the Ice test and the magnet test. My reputation is on the line and I have NEVER had anything I Fabricated into jewelry come back to bite me. This coin shop tested my piece with a Gold acid test, and told her the piece was fake and offered a couple of bucks to her for it. I tested it again when she told me the story and it came back once again as totally authentic. I do know that this coin shop had recently opened and only stayed in business for about 8 months. so that is my experience.

[JM_Silver_Addict]

Yes Sunshine is one of several that supply the planchets to the U.S. Mint.
My point being Official Mints have a responsibility on top of the utmost of means to supply get this ........ Quality .... Quality in the form of the highest Standards of Quality Control possible.
Your beloved Private Mints, although Generics have their place sure, don't count on impeccable QC .. And that in both a craftsmanship perspective and like I said "wouldn't be surprised if we one day found out" many of the Joe's Garage Private Mints Issuances don't even assay properly ..... Not saying they don't, just pointing out yup, "You get what you pay for" & You get out what you put in, anything Life

Well I totally agree with you the mint has much higher quality control and I trust the US Mint when they guarantee their assay and purity. Still though there are a lot of nice private mints with high reputations and shouldn't be looked down on. I'm known to love my name brand generics but I stack ASE, CML, RCM 10 & 100 oz bars.....love government mint stuff as well. Hell I just ordered another 9 RCM bars but hey you can't beat the premiums on generics. To each their own I stack heavy on both generic and government issue.

Back to op cut that bar in half already lol and let us know if its good. I'm positive its good.

[3doors_down]

Recently I ordered from Provident Metals a quantity of their silver prospector 1 ounce bars. My sibling bought three of them and took one to Hudson Valley Jewelry and Loan in Nyack, New York. I spoke to the employee in the store who said the bar was tested with acid and is not silver, he also says he tested the acid against real silver (all this in front of my sibling) to demonstrate that the acid was good. Should the bar in question be taken to another dealer?

What is the best course of action here? I'm skeptical about the pawn shop (he also said this bar is a common fake, from what I know it is a pretty recent issue) but nonetheless need to investigate this. It seems highly unlikely that Provident would be selling fake bars, I've never read or heard of any issues with this company and have always been very comfortable with their service. I have sold their coins and bars at local dealers (both gold and silver), never had an issue.

Measured one bar I have at home, 50.1 mm long, 29.13 mm wide, depth is hard because it is a raised edge. Weight was 31.24 Grams.

To get this thread back on track...

1- Why would someone (sister) buy a bar and immediately take it to a pawn shop?

2. Why bother posting the dimensions but leave one (thickness) out??? Yes all bars and rounds (and coins) have a rim, so what. A lead or copper fake of the correct outside dimensions is a lot thicker than any error coming from the rim. Post the thickness that you measure please!

3. Did your bars come in plastic pages?

[maxwellsilverhammer]

ha, im beginning to like your sarchasm more and more joe! you have a knack in the way you say some things that i personally enjoy. a good laugh out loud this morning with my coffee. thanks.

Nothing like using Physical PMs to play those "spot" swings though.......
Maybe I should trade in the Charger for a Two Ton pick up, set 5 Cent increment spot alerts and start "trading" myself ......

[Mytal]

………..
When / If my sell day comes > Do as you want ……You break it you own it …. who cares, what’s the difference.


Then again, I wouldn’t at all be surprised to one day find out all these endless Private Mint Bars, Rounds, “Strikes” are not .999 Silver yet actually assay lower.
They’re IMO no different than buying Joe’s Garage “.999 Silver” aka: Buying From Amateurs.
(I’ll try not to go into my forever spiel of Coins and Coins only but then again, “You get what you pay for” & “Garbage in, garbage out”)

What worries me is when a company has a buy back/ resell listing, you would still have to believe product is checked, but seems a point to infiltrate.
I Purchased more than a few (new) PMetals 10 ozers this past year, looked at them long enough to put away. Silvertowne donkey bars from Silvertowne, stacked away.
My point being purchasing new silver stock from a reputable dealer online should and does leaves me content. Any time I wish to scour for deals on 2nd hand product
a trip to a lcs is worth it, they will test it right there if you want.
I guess, for my comfort level, unless it's new product a company gets from the source, I'm really OCD with what I bring home...

[joeinnj]

What worries me is when a company has a buy back/ resell listing, you would still have to believe product is checked, but seems a point to infiltrate.
I Purchased more than a few (new) PMetals 10 ozers this past year, looked at them long enough to put away. Silvertowne donkey bars from Silvertowne, stacked away.
My point being purchasing new silver stock from a reputable dealer online should and does leaves me content. Any time I wish to scour for deals on 2nd hand product
a trip to a lcs is worth it, they will test it right there if you want.
I guess, for my comfort level, unless it's new product a company gets from the source, I'm really OCD with what I bring home...

Ditto that ……..
Peace of (stack) mind is near priority one for me.
One of several reasons I mainly accumulate Coins > Buying from Reputable Dealers lowers the potential headache factor > Buying current or near current year issues lowers it even more-so.
Even buying Secondary Market pieces from a Rep. Dealer is near fool-proof.
Each & every pieces is checked / verified within wall to wall camera’d vaults ……. Buy from someone who has something to lose, aka; Their reputation…… (Despite it probably 9 out of 10 times probably being fine I’m not buying from some private seller off the Band of Gypsy for scamming Sellers E Bay for example)
And good thought on LCS purchases ……… All the time you like to check it out before paying sure.
(Not to mention building a relationship with your potential buyer, swap partner down the line)

[Gold Standard]

I will leave it to others to trust pawn shop operators. I don't.

[4nineFine]

Yes Sunshine is one of several that supply the planchets to the U.S. Mint.
My point being Official Mints have a responsibility on top of the utmost of means to supply get this ........ Quality .... Quality in the form of the highest Standards of Quality Control possible.

Just a thought, but I doubt any private mint supplying planchets would want to risk losing a gov't contract. Given that the weight & purity is guaranteed by the US gov't I just see this as another layer of security.

I hope all works out well for the op.

[DBCooper]

Question, had anybody here ever heard of a well established private mint passing sub. 999 for the real thing? Ever? Sounds to me like being scared of a problem that doesn't exist.

[joeinnj]

Question, had anybody here ever heard of a well established private mint passing sub. 999 for the real thing? Ever? Sounds to me like being scared of a problem that doesn't exist.

You ever heard of just speculating, imagine that's or what if's ........
I'm guessing not ........
You get to know the posters around here and some clearly already have All the facts Jack and never bother with any of the former nor even bother ever thinking again.
Must be nice ............. Assuming very existing actually froze dead for all of time still to come.