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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;gxseries, post: 2166050, member: 4373&quot;]This is an interesting question. As far as I understand, chopmark is just a method to test if the coin is struck in &quot;good&quot; silver and not plated silver. Even in that era, counterfeits were a major problem. Usually with higher content silver, I presume that it would be soft compared to plated base metal which would be harder. I would highly doubt if the merchants be able to tell the difference between .800 silver to .900 silver. .600 silver might be pushing it as I presume the alloy would be much harder. </p><p><br /></p><p>Usually merchants would discriminate by provinces which were more likely to not strike to official standards. Kirin, Kiangnan, Kansu were some of the biggest culprits as these provinces were poor in silver. If I remember correctly, these were traded at a lower value because of such suspicion. Obviously all other foreign coins were subjected to further scrutiny. While most crown coins were tested, smaller denomination coins might be subjected to test once in a while although it was not common. Of course, while it&#039;s more profitable to counterfeit crown size coins, counterfeiters would not miss their opportunity to counterfeit essentially anything. I think I have a couple of 7.2 candareen coins that were chopmarked. </p><p><br /></p><p>As of how far this practice was continued, I would say it would be around 1910 - 1920s. This was when silver coins in particular the Fat Man coins were finally struck to official standard and the public had more confidence in using them without worrying too much about counterfeits and underweight silver content.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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