I am not a huge coin collector but I do buy silver whenever I can. I ran into one of the Chinese silver dollars at a flea market. I could not tell that it was a fake by looking at it - it was perfect as far as I could tell. But when you dropped it it just did not sound right. Kind of tinny or something. If anyone knows of a sure way to tell them apart I would love to know the secret.

Speaking of fakes I also ran into fake pieces of eight in Rotan while on a cruise sveral years ago. There was nothing to do since the dock was at a commercial dock and no city nearby so they set up a flea market on the dock for us pigeons. I wasthinking of buying one but decided to look around first. I got really suspicious when they had the exact same piece at several of the stalls. By exact I mean exact - even down to the small flaws. There are rip off artists all over.