Maintenance
Part of Bullion authentication guide: evidence and limits
Suspect Bullion Checklist for Quarantine and Evidence
Suspect bullion checklist for isolating an item, preserving packaging and transaction records, documenting discrepancies, and choosing a review path.
What to take away
- Stop sale, transfer, cleaning, and destructive testing.
- Preserve the item with its package, invoice, photographs, and custody record.
- Describe observations without declaring fraud before examination.
- Protect seller, marketplace, payment, carrier, and insurer deadlines.
- Escalate with raw data and a precise question.
Use this suspect bullion checklist when a bullion coin, bar, package, or grading holder produces an unexplained inconsistency.
Immediate control
- Assign a neutral case ID.
- Remove the item from sale, shipment, display, or pooled inventory.
- Place it in a clean non-reactive holder without wiping it.
- Keep original capsule, assay card, slab, label, box, and shipping materials.
- Record date, time, finder, location code, and current custodian.
- Photograph all sides before additional handling.
Do not stamp or engrave the item. The FTC's page on the Hobby Protection Act explains federal marking requirements for imitation numismatic items, but an owner investigating a suspect purchase should preserve evidence and seek appropriate advice rather than alter it personally.
Immediate control steps
- Assign neutral case ID
- Remove from sale or shipment
- Place in clean non-reactive holder
- Keep original capsule and assay card
- Record date, time, finder, custodian
- Photograph all sides before handling
Define the discrepancy
- Exact claimed product, year, size, finish, and package are written.
- Official specification and security-feature generation are saved.
- Observed difference is stated in measurable terms.
- Instrument, setting, calibration check, and raw output are recorded.
- Known-genuine comparison source is identified.
- Uncertainty and test limits are stated.
Examples of precise notes include "gross mass 0.42 gram below published value on two calibrated readings" or "certification image shows a different contact mark at 4 o'clock." Avoid "looks fake" as the only record.
Define the discrepancy
- Write exact claimed product details
- Save official specification and security features
- State observed difference in measurable terms
- Record instrument, setting, calibration, output
- Identify known-genuine comparison source
- State uncertainty and test limits
Preserve transaction rights
- Save listing, invoice, seller terms, messages, and payment proof.
- Calendar return and dispute deadlines.
- Notify the seller in writing without surrendering the item prematurely.
- Ask for the proposed examination and remedy process.
- Confirm who pays insured transport and who bears loss in transit.
- Send copies of evidence and retain originals.
Examine the object and holder separately
- Certification number is checked at the service's own site.
- Online images are compared with coin, label, and holder.
- Seams, welds, holograms, fonts, barcode, and insert alignment are recorded.
- Coin design and surfaces are compared independently.
- No conclusion relies only on a matching serial number.
Density is the cheapest comparison an owner can make without altering anything. A USGS general-interest publication on gold gives the specific gravity of pure gold as 19.3, against 11.4 for lead, and defines fineness as gold content in parts per thousand. That gap separates gold from a lead core, but not from tungsten.
Establish a single physical marker for the specific substitution in question. A random depression, bag mark, or scratch is not proof by itself.
Choose escalation
- Recognized grading or authentication service for eligible coins.
- Mint-authorized verification system for a covered product.
- Qualified precious-metal laboratory for composition or internal examination.
- Insurer, marketplace, payment provider, or law enforcement when facts warrant.
- Legal adviser for high-value disputes or contested custody.
Ask a narrow question: product authenticity, holder authenticity, surface composition, bulk composition, internal continuity, grade, or damage. One provider may not answer all of them.
Close the case
- Final report identifies examiner, method, result, and limits.
- Seller or provider response is preserved.
- Refund, replacement, retention, or lawful disposition is documented.
- Inventory status and location are updated.
- Other items from the same source are risk-reviewed.
Common questions
Should a suspect bar be drilled immediately?
No. Preserve transaction rights and begin with qualified non-destructive review unless an authorized destructive assay is necessary.
Can the item be sent back in ordinary mail?
Use a documented, authorized, insured process suited to the contents and value.
Does one failed dimension settle the matter?
It can establish inconsistency, but verify the reference, instrument, package, method, and allowable tolerance.
Should other purchases from the seller be tested?
Review them using a risk-based plan and keep each item's evidence separate.
