How to verify a silver bar before you pay for it

Buying bullion is one of the few remaining transactions where an ordinary person hands over a large sum for an object whose value depends entirely on properties they cannot see. You are trusting that a grey metal bar is 999 fine silver and weighs exactly what it claims. Fortunately, verification is not difficult — it is mostly a matter of knowing what to insist on.

Start with the stampings

A legitimate fine-silver bar carries three pieces of information, struck into the metal:

• The fineness — 999, meaning 99.9% pure silver
• The weight — 100 g, 500 g, 1 KG or equivalent
• The maker's or dealer's mark — on DPPL bars, the diamond seal

All three should be crisp and evenly struck. Be suspicious of stampings that look shallow, smeared, doubled, or struck over something else. A re-struck bar is not necessarily fraudulent, but it is a question worth asking, and the answer should be immediate and unembarrassed.

Insist on watching it weighed

This is the single most important step, and the easiest to skip out of politeness. Ask for the bar to be placed on a calibrated scale in front of you. A 100 gram bar should read 100.0 grams, or a shade over. It should not read 99.4. It should not be "about a hundred".

A dealer who hesitates at this request has told you something important. Weighing in front of the customer is normal practice at any serious counter, and no honest shop finds it insulting.

The physical properties that are hard to fake

Silver has an unusual combination of physical characteristics, and counterfeits usually fail at least one of them.

• Density. Silver is 10.49 grams per cubic centimetre. A bar of the right weight but wrong dimensions is not silver. Common substitute metals are either noticeably lighter or, in the case of tungsten-based fakes, wrong in other ways.
• Magnetism. Silver is not magnetic. A strong magnet should not stick to a silver bar at all. (A neodymium magnet slid down a tilted silver surface will fall slowly — an effect of eddy currents, not attraction — which is itself a useful sign of high conductivity.)
• Sound. Fine silver has a long, clear, bell-like ring when struck lightly against another piece of metal. Plated base metal gives a short dull thud. Experienced dealers use this constantly.
• Thermal conductivity. Silver is the best thermal conductor of any element. An ice cube placed on a silver bar melts noticeably faster than on other metals.

Acid testing is definitive but destructive — it marks the bar — so it belongs to the dealer's workshop, not the buying decision. Professional dealers use non-destructive electronic testers for anything doubtful.

The invoice is part of the product

Ask for a full invoice recording the weight, the fineness, the rate applied, the making charge, the date, and the dealer's registration details. This is not bureaucracy — it is what converts a lump of metal into a liquid asset.

A documented bar from a known dealer can be sold back at the published purchase rate the same day, without argument or discount. An undocumented bar of unknown origin has to be tested, and the buyer will price that uncertainty into what they offer you. The invoice is worth real money at the moment you sell.

The warning sign that matters most

Be careful with any deal meaningfully below the published market rate. Silver is a commodity with a public price. Nobody sells it below the market out of generosity. If a price is well under the day's rate, one of a small number of things is true: the metal is not what it claims, the weight is short, the paperwork is missing, or the goods are of unclear origin.

Paying the fair, published rate at a documented counter is not the expensive option. Over any real holding period, it is the cheapest way to own silver, because it is the only version you can sell again at full value.

A short checklist

• Three clear stampings: fineness, weight, maker's mark
• Weighed on a calibrated scale while you watch
• Not magnetic; rings clear when struck
• Full invoice with weight, fineness, rate, making charge, date
• Price consistent with the published daily rate
• A dealer with a fixed address who will state their buy-back terms

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