There are really two kinds of people interested in collecting bullion coins; the investors, who, for the most part value the coins as a convenient and stable form of investment and the eager numismatists who value their coins as much for their aesthetics as their monetary value. Whichever category an individual falls into – or if they are maybe somewhere in between – one thing that is important to all of them is that their coins are the genuine article and not clever fakes, of which there are a number in circulation.
There are some tried and tested ways to determine if certain coins are not quite what they seem and some coins do feature hard to replicate security elements designed to prevent fraudsters from even trying to copy them in the first place. However, fakes do slip past, especially if you are buying from a trade show or small offline retailer.
As there is almost an app for everything today it will perhaps come as no surprise to learn that someone has devised a way to use a smartphone app to determine the authenticity of certain silver bullion coins.
The ‘Bullion Test Free‘ app is an Android app that makes use of a phone’s speaker system to perform a basic resonance test, a tool used by professionals to determine the authenticity of a coin.
Using the app is a relatively straightforward process. In a quiet room the coin is to be held up to the phone and the testing process activated. The user should then tap the coin – only once – and then let the app get to work.
The app can then determine, by the sound that is created, whether or not the coin is genuine, without the human user needed to know the specifics about a certain coin.
As great as all of this sounds it goes without saying that as clever as this little app is it does have its limitations. For example, in the ‘free form’ advertised in its title, the app can only work with three types of coin. Others are supported, but you will have to pay extra in order to test them.
At this time ‘Bullion Test Free’ is only available for Android based devices. If you are an Apple fan however there is a similar app available in your App Store called ‘Coin Trust‘.
