This morning, I wandered about a local consignment place. There was a bag of what was labeled Mexican Peso’s, based on the years on the coins they should be silver. Looked them up online, and (if real) they were worth more than what was being asked. There were hundreds of coins.
After web research, I went to a coin store I trust to talk about peso’s. The guys there confirmed the value of the coins if real. They also briefed me on what the weight of each should be if real, and a quick test of touching them with a magnet.
I went back to the “mall” with my scale and a strong magnet. The clerk got the coins, and I handed her the magnet. When she touched it to one coin, they all clumped together. They were all fake, per what the coin store folks told me, junk sent by China and sold here for pennies to some, high price to others, but it puts junk in circulation here and sets in place extended distrust of “silver” coins.
I told the consignment store folks the coins were fake, replicas, that the tag on the display should have said replica, otherwise it was fraud. I wonder what will happen to the seller….