Precious metals investors need to use caution to avoid falling victim to the predatory tactics of counterfeiters.

The best way to start is to reach out to reputable coin dealers and comparison shop when seeking to buy or sell precious metals. The following tips provided by seasoned coin dealers should give you some guidance about the best precious metals values currently available and how to steer clear of deceitful deal makers.

Growing Problem of Counterfeit Coins and Ingots

Investors should beware of the “small but growing problem” of counterfeit silver coins and ingots, said Patrick Heller, communications officer at Liberty Coin Service in Lansing, Michigan.

“The risk of counterfeits is another reason to consider acquiring U.S. 90 percent silver coins as the best form of silver,” Heller said. “Counterfeiters could try to make fakes of these, but it would be far more profitable to them to make fakes of bars and modern issues such as U.S. Silver Eagle Dollars. As a consequence, there are almost no fakes of bulk U.S. 90 percent silver coins.”

Heller warned that gold ingots larger than 1 troy ounce in size are especially susceptible to counterfeiting.

“Tungsten has about the same specific gravity as gold, so it is possible to plate a tungsten counterfeit with gold to make it the proper weight and dimensions,” Heller explained. “Or genuine coins and bars have had gold drilled out of them on the side, tungsten rods inserted and a gold cap used to disguise the alteration. This problem seems to have been most often seen on gold ingots larger than the 1 troy ounce size. Because of this, I do not recommend purchasing gold bars larger than 1 ounce because of the risk that the owner would need to have it melted and assayed in order to sell it.”

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Paul Dykewicz, www.pauldykewicz.com, is an accomplished, award-winning journalist who has written for Dow Jones, the Wall Street Journal, Investor’s Business Daily, USA Today, the Journal of Commerce,Seeking Alpha, GuruFocus and other publications and websites. Paul is the editor of StockInvestor.com and DividendInvestor.com, a writer for both websites and a columnist. He further is the editorial director of Eagle Financial Publications in Washington, D.C., where he edits monthly investment newsletters, time-sensitive trading alerts, free e-letters and other investment reports. Paul previously served as business editor of Baltimore’s Daily Record newspaper. Paul also is the author of an inspirational book, “Holy Smokes! Golden Guidance from Notre Dame’s Championship Chaplain,” with a foreword by former national championship-winning football coach Lou Holtz.