There has been a bit of a spate of counterfeit cash circulating in Australia in the news recently... and that is quite annoying, as we do still use cash, and it would be supremely annoying if some of those notes made their way into our hands... I can imagine the embarrassment of being called out for using fake cash when you thought it was real, and then trying to explain what happened.

Anyway, earlier today, I was only AliExpress trying to pick up some cheap music related things... and for some reason, these things appeared in my feed of suggested products. No way... FAKE silver pieces... the Kangaroos look partway decent, but the koalas look really weird... but anyway, I waas suprised that these things are even allowed to be sold. I mean, it is pretty dodgy arse, and I know that I was burnt a single time on eBay a long time ago after purchasing a very magnetic silver ounce... but I should have read the bloody description, it wasn't trying to pass itself off as real silver... except for the price (which thankfully was a lot lower than it was now... )... and I keep that thing around as a reminder to be careful.

Anyway, these are a lot closer to what you might expect... they are non-magnetic... but they probably still behave different to a magnet in comparison to real silver, and no doubt they probably ring different. But to a casual inspection when changing hands quickly, they might pass off as real enough. Especially if the seller is going out of their way to be deceitful... and at the moment, a seller would make a roughly 15x gain on selling these for real silver. And there are dodgy people out there...

So, anyway, I wandered down the list of specifications... and it isn't quite the right weight for a silver ounce... but it is sort of close. You might not notice if you were in a hurry... and the diameter is pretty damn close as well.

Anyway, I was pretty damn surprised... and it is sort of scary that these things are out there. More reason to just pay a little bit extra and get these things from reputable auction houses or bullion dealers. The risk just isn't worth it...

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