BEWARE FAKE SILVER BARS FROM CHINA : eBay Guides

I have recently acquired so called Antique Tibetan Silver bars from China. Well packed and in pristine condition which had the patina of fresh cured silver...However on  some basic tests I find These bars are made from very soft metals which melt under soldering iron temperatures. They look like silver, and it is easy to believe they may be ,but dont be fooled. There are a couple of easy ways to test for silver purity. The first is a simple scratch test made with an xacto knife or craft knife blade. Pass the blade across the metal   as if shaving  . The shaving will produce a curl of metal on imitation metal. Real silver will also shave but it will be  way more difficult. The real test is melting temp. Normal pure silver will not melt under a regular soldering iron temp of about 750 degrees. If it easily melts as did this  Bar then you have solder and not pure silver. Solder can be a variety of compositions and can contain lead. Also included are Tin, Antimony,Nickel, ....and Silver.... As these  items from China are sold at a very low start and profit using the  shipping /Handling  service charge which in my case was a whopping 210 AU dollars you will only pay a pittance for the  fake bullion  bars but big bucks for the shipping. This makes your solder the most expensive solder money can buy.  any type  modern silver bars can be faked with lead free solder or pot casting metal which may even  contain a very low  percentage of silver and this looks very much like mint silver. So , for example, you can have Johnson and Matthey fake bars etc. Any cheaply offered silver from anywhere  should be suspect in my opinion.
apr/20/2010...As a Postscript to this review which I wrote a few years ago i would say that these bars are still being offered as  pure .999 silver...i use mine for paperweights!...any cheaply offered silver from any source should be suspect