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There have been many One Pound Silver coins that are or have been sold
on Ebay. Make sure what you are buying. A true One Pound Silver coin
should be marked as One Troy pound Fine Silver. Or .999 fine silver.
Something stating that it is fine Silver.
Many One pound coins are really one pound of copper plated with .999 fine silver.They often have a serial number on the side of the coin. They are marked ONE POUND on the reverse. These coins do weight one pound and will weight in at 454 grams. A true one pound .999 fine silver coin will weight 373.2 grams; as all precious metals are weighted in Troy. One troy ounce equals 31.1 grams , not the usual 28.375 grams of non-precious metals. A troy pound is only 12 troy ounces, not 16 ounce for a normal pound.
example. For a troy pound 12 X 31.1 = 373.2 grams
For a pound 16 X 28.375 = 454 grams .
Again; if the coin weights 454 grams, be suspicious as to it not being precious metal.
If you have one of these coins and are unsure of what metals it is. You can do a specific gravity test on it. This will not damage the coin . You will need a accurate set of scales and a way to weight the coin while it is submerged in water. I use a plastic clip and dental floss to attach the coin to the scales. First weight the coin dry than submerge it in water and weight it again wet.The proper way is to use distilled water and room temperature of 72F. But because the coin is very heavy, it will not change the results enough to be inaccurate. NOW subtract the wet weight from the dry weight. Finally take the resulting number and divide it into the dry weight.
Formula : DRYWEIGHT
------------------------------------------------ EQUALS THE SPECIFIC GRAVITY
DRYWEIGHT MINUS THE WET WEIGHT
That number will be the specific gravity of the coin. Here is a list of specific gravities for precious metals along with copper.
Copper, cast-rolled 8.8 - 8.95
Brass, cast-rolled 8.4 - 8.7
Silver, pure 10.4 - 10.6
Gold, pure 19.32
Platinum, pure 21.5
Many One pound coins are really one pound of copper plated with .999 fine silver.They often have a serial number on the side of the coin. They are marked ONE POUND on the reverse. These coins do weight one pound and will weight in at 454 grams. A true one pound .999 fine silver coin will weight 373.2 grams; as all precious metals are weighted in Troy. One troy ounce equals 31.1 grams , not the usual 28.375 grams of non-precious metals. A troy pound is only 12 troy ounces, not 16 ounce for a normal pound.
example. For a troy pound 12 X 31.1 = 373.2 grams
For a pound 16 X 28.375 = 454 grams .
Again; if the coin weights 454 grams, be suspicious as to it not being precious metal.
If you have one of these coins and are unsure of what metals it is. You can do a specific gravity test on it. This will not damage the coin . You will need a accurate set of scales and a way to weight the coin while it is submerged in water. I use a plastic clip and dental floss to attach the coin to the scales. First weight the coin dry than submerge it in water and weight it again wet.The proper way is to use distilled water and room temperature of 72F. But because the coin is very heavy, it will not change the results enough to be inaccurate. NOW subtract the wet weight from the dry weight. Finally take the resulting number and divide it into the dry weight.
Formula : DRYWEIGHT
------------------------------------------------ EQUALS THE SPECIFIC GRAVITY
DRYWEIGHT MINUS THE WET WEIGHT
That number will be the specific gravity of the coin. Here is a list of specific gravities for precious metals along with copper.
Copper, cast-rolled 8.8 - 8.95
Brass, cast-rolled 8.4 - 8.7
Silver, pure 10.4 - 10.6
Gold, pure 19.32
Platinum, pure 21.5