Determining silver content of coins with varying fineness?

Easy way to tell if coins are silver or CuNi: place them flat on a table top or counter and lay a white Kleenex-type tissue over them. Silver coins will appear as white discs, CuNi will appear dark grey. Give it a try. Works best with relatively fresh coin surfaces, less well if silver is toned.

 

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How about silver plated?

 

Scrape it off, then weigh it. It's more accurate.

 

It works because silver is actually white in color while most other alloys are not. It's not 100% but certainly better than the 10% success rate someone mentioned. I learned the trick from a dealer decades ago.