With all the recent comments as to forgeries and the recommendation to check the weight first, what scales are recommended or to be avoided? Primarily I am looking at roman silver and bronze- first and second century.
I just looked on amazon for a scale that went up to 100g, 2 decimal places and came with a calibration weight. Then I checked the reviews for various models.
To Funny! I JUST sent off a note to a seller of a Silver Panda that was underweight. I am giving him the benefit of the doubt to fix it, before I open a case. Attached are two scales that I have/use... one is tolerance to 0.01 with weight limit of 200g, and the other to 0.1 with weight limit of 100g (I can change the units easily). They appear to be accurate and were the same weights with only the tolerance difference. They work well for me... I believe each were in the $20-$30 USD range. Got on eBay and Amazon. BTW, I checked several websites, and the Panda was PERFECT, EXCEPT the weight was UNDER... nope...
1TOZ, 31.103g I tell ya, it was perfect. Saw no flaws. I was being careful with this one. Married on 8-8-08, this is our 8th Anniv... Chinese good luck numbers, Chinese Olympics started on 8-8-8, and we even had folks fly in from China and signed our marriage cert in Chinese. LOL glad I did not get 8 of them...
I got a small generic scale off eBay, made for jewelry so it measures in grams, dwt, and oz. At 5 dollars it does the job, plus its still going good for over 2 years now and haven't changed the battery yet.
There is a chance it is authentic. I`ve read stories about weight issues with 2015 and 2009 Pandas. 30.9g is not uncommon for different years/types 1TOZ Pandas. Could you provide high quality photos of this coin?
Then the batteries are due to go any day now! So long as you have a weight to calibrate when they go, you will be fine. My first scale was 50g and my second was 100g. If I get anything that is over that, I will take it to the local jewellers and ask him to weigh it for me.
29.8 toz is too much off from 31.103... Already sent him a note, packed it, and awaiting reply. Also, already ordered a replacement from a trusted source. No big deal to me. I got it on the cheap, and knew better, but risk/pay was low for me.
As far as the Panda coins go, I've read they changed the silver content in them. The new ones are 30 grams.
I have two cheap scales from different types and eBay sellers. Both are rated at .01g but neither will measure the same coin twice with exactly the same result and the two on the same day and time give different results on that last digit. One came with calibration weights which have been used to calibrate both. When I buy a coin from a big name seller and compare their weights with mine, they rarely agree. I'm not sure that I need that last digit but I do know what I have is not doing the job.
I actually have several Gold and Silver Pandas. I agree and understand the change. They even dropped the '1 oz fine' during the transitional years, while still maintaining the 1 toz weight. Yes, they are 30g now. However, the 2008 was prior to that. Seller has resolved it with me. All is good.
I like the 0.01 calibration for bullion or for modern world gold. Otherwise, I agree with all on the Ancients.
This obsession with weights is a new thing, maybe 10 years or so old. True, weights have been studied for many decades (or even the past 100 years or so), but there are great variations in weights with ancient coins. Yes, we can have an average known weight, but it may be more important to know what the bell curve may be for an issue. In the current climate it is expected that a coin be weighed to the hundredth of a gram, so you should buy any scale that shows that. Not sure why, the ancients might have been able to do so but it was not that important to the individual coin. The more important component was striking raw metal into coins. If the mint got extra coins out of the strike, all the better. But one can see from infinite studies already done, even a coin as light as a denarius can vary quite wildly in it weight.
I tend to use weights as a decision on buying a coin many times. I like heavy Denarii and Ants. Sometimes if a denarius or so is underweight, by a lot from the average, I avoid it. I have also bought many if they had been overweight then the average and they fall into my budget range. Stilly, but thats just one of the areas of ancients that appeal to me.
