Magnetic

Sorry about naive but what other coin metals besides Silver and Alum are non magnetic-- i recently bought several large chinese coins--very cheaply (less than $1.00 on ebay)-- however i expected them all to be magnetic,but some to my surprise were not-- all coins were approx the right weight and diameter and all are catalogued as silver and very expensive for the real items Murray

Pretty much anything except nickel, iron and steel are non-magnetic. Even cupro-nickel is non magnetic because it's usually a pretty low amount of nickel (usually 90% copper to 10% nickel) If they are non magnetic they're likely to be cu-ni.

But if you want to be sure then do a density test https://en.numista.com/numisdoc/measure-a-coin-s-density-27.html

or the icecube test https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaYh3SlRK0w

Quote: "neilithic"​Pretty much anything except nickel, iron and steel are non-magnetic. Even cupro-nickel is non magnetic because it's usually a pretty low amount of nickel (usually 90% copper to 10% nickel) If they are non magnetic they're likely to be cu-ni.
​
​But if you want to be sure then do a density test https://en.numista.com/numisdoc/measure-a-coin-s-density-27.html
​
​or the icecube test https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaYh3SlRK0w

​The Copper-nickel alloy is usually made of 75% Copper and 25% Nickel. But yes, it is non magnetic.

Whoops, I was thinking Bronze which is mostly copper with 10%-12% tin

Quote: "neilithic"​Whoops, I was thinking Bronze which is mostly copper with 10%-12% tin

​That's right Bronze are in the same category...

nickel brass are non magnetic https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces3037.html, then you have some Brass plated steel which are magnetic https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces84132.html

This two coins are one of my examples... same coin just different year and different composition (internal).

Lets not forget it also depends on the power of the magnet.

So called "rare earth" magnets or Neodymium as they are mainly known as are extremely strong and can find the tiniest amount of magnetic material depending on its size. I use a 15mm square Neodymium magnet which is pretty darn strong and detects the smallest traces of magnetic materials.

Where as your average magnet will not detect small traces of magnetic metals.

Back to muzz0000's Question:

I think your "Chinese expensive but cheap bought" coins are fakes.
If you show us pictures of the coins, the experts here can tell more.

The thickness is important too.

Yes, my advice to test if they are silver with the ice-cube or density tests still stands.

hi guys. Thanks for all your input. Of course i realised that they were not real at less than buck each. However the interesting thing is of the ten I bought only some are magnetic. Will post picture. Murray

Yeah, there's so many different ways to fake them. The magnetic ones will probably be made in steel, the non magnetic ones in cu-ni. They will likely all be underweight. Some I have seen have been the right weight and diameter but are thicker than the genuine article. Then there are the copies of really rare expensive coins that are actually made in silver, since the price they could get for selling them is way above the $15-$20 worth of silver that is used to make them. Those ones can be pretty hard to spot for all except the experts. That's the reason why I tend not to buy Chinese coins.

Same here, I see plenty of them on eBay. Panda and the 7.2 candereens. I find a lot of the panda coins are in NGC graded slabs, like abnormal amount of them slabbed which makes me trust them even less as slabs could be also counterfeit.

Shame none of them popped up as silver, you would have got yourself a bargain!

here is one- non magnetic 27g and about 40 dia- no way to measure thickness


lovely patina haha

this is one of mine- have alook at the us and europe coins he has for sale-- it is a wonder he can get away with it
http://www.ebay.com/itm/252367066055?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

Ha! winning bid 10p, he's really raking in the dough.

Report him. E-bay are pretty good about kicking off crooked sellers if you report them. I had issues with one seller from China who tried to get around the e-bay fees by selling his coins for 99c and then charging $99 for postage. When I asked if he had a cheaper postage charge he actually came out and said "my prices are cheap...I make my money through the postage" I reported him and he got dumped off the site.

Quote: "neilithic"​Ha! winning bid 10p, he's really raking in the dough.
​
​Report him. E-bay are pretty good about kicking off crooked sellers if you report them. I had issues with one seller from China who tried to get around the e-bay fees by selling his coins for 99c and then charging $99 for postage. When I asked if he had a cheaper postage charge he actually came out and said "my prices are cheap...I make my money through the postage" I reported him and he got dumped off the site.

​the thing is though I was aware they were fake but when they turned up non magnetic I thought I had better check. Is size and weight about right?????