I have 90+ Morgan and Peace dollars that I have picked up here and there for about 18 years. I saw something posted on this website about their weight being 26.7 grams, so I bought a gram scale and got them out to weigh them. I found 15 that do not fall between 26.6 and 26.8. Most of them in question are worn and are weighing from 26.2 to 26.5. Also, I have 1 that weighs 25. 9 and 1 that weighs 27.1. Does that mean they're all fake?
Those should all be fine. The only one I'd even question slightly based on weight would be the 25.9, and if it's got substantial wear, that would still be acceptable to me.
Once silver gets down to G or below, in many designs it has lost a lot of metal. Once you get into AG or below, the metal lost can be significant. There was a thread here at one point within the last year where this was discussed and a lot of useful data quantifying the amount of wear was shared. I'd search for past discussion on it, which as I recall focused mainly on half dollars and smaller denominations. I don't think your low weights seem unreasonable. I'm not knowledgeable in tolerances and using weight in counterfeit detection, though, so I won't comment on the 27.1g weight.
Thanks for the info. I'll have the 27 g checked out. The 25.9 is the worst worn Morgan I have, it's a CC. Also thanks for the searching info. I've only been to this site through a mobile app, I didn't know you could search archives.
As a rule of thumb, mint tolerances were about + or - 1%. That gives you a range of 26.438 to 26.967. Heavier than that would be cause for concern. 27.1 is almost double the tolerance.
You might check the calibration of your scale with a jeweler's weight. Also, sometimes the scale can give odd readings when the batteries are going bad. I once got four different readings for the same coin, but after I changed the batteries, I got consistent readings. Chris
