Question

how can you determine that a coin is not pure silver if you know the mass and volume of the coin

Answer 1

Divide the mass by the volume to calculate its density. If its density isn't the same as an equal amount of pure silver, the coin has some other metal in it.

The density test can be fooled if the coin was adulterated with other metals that average out to the same density as silver, however.

Hope it helps you

Answer 2

We can tell if a coin is pure or not by the following means:

• Checking for purity marks on the coin made by the manufacturer.
• Checking the purity using a magnet as silver is metal and almost all metals show attraction to the magnet.
• Another way to check the purity of the coin is by a density examination and comparison.
• A density comparison is done by measuring the density of sample and comparing it to standard metal values.
• Negligible deviation can be ignored. But if there is a significant deviation we can be positive of adulteration.