The Pocket Pinger + Stack Stick, Coin Ping Test (Black, 1 Pack)

Product Information

We've talked before about knowing the sound of a good coin when dropped gently. Some people also place coins on a neutral object and then strike them with a pen or pencil, etc. For small coins: push slightly with your fingernail, place your phone on a box for easier handling near the microphone.

The same went for the "Lincoln Cent" and the "Liberty Mint" rounds. They don't exist in the list of coins, but when compared to the silver Krugerrand and the British Lunar, guess what? PingCoin sees them as those coins, respectively. The same with the Liberty Mint round. If I entered the dimensions manually it saw it as equivalent to the Krugerrand. But if I entered it as a Krugerrand, it only gave it a 2/3 rating. I used two apps on my phone--one is the "PingCoin" app, the other the one recommended with the Ping Tester, the "Precious Coin Tester" app.Precious coin tester helps you listen to the sound generated by the ping test and will tell you whether the coin is a cheap metal fake*. So no more worry about the fake gold or silver coin! Further, when I tested it as a Silver Eagle, it also identified it as genuine. The dimensions are very similar, and the relief on the coin is probably similar to the Eagle such that they resonate similarly. One more thing: in a post-SHTF environment where, say, cellphones no longer work, what good does a phone app do for us? Not much. That's why, if you want to compare, it makes sense to have at least one of the genuine article against which you can compare other rounds or coins. They should sound the same when pinged.

Conclusions: My original hope, that one could use the Ping tester to identify whether a coin was genuine or a non-precious-metal fake was only partly realized. If you can find the coin in the database of either tester, I think it's a pretty good first-take on whether the round is genuine silver. Finally, if anyone has additional information on this, please post. I know a fair amount about Eagles and junk silver, but not so much about rounds. I have room to learn more.The Precious Coin Tester has literally thousands and thousands of coins in its database. I found it a bit difficult to find what I was looking for, eventually mostly did. If you don't know what a coin is named, or you spell it wrong, it may not show up for you. When you get a silver or gold coin with correct weight and size, how can you know it is not a fake coin made of other cheap materials? Traditional ping tests can distinguish true gold or silver coins from counterfeit ones in cheap metal. But you need good ears!