One thing you can do if worried about fakes is buy “junk” silver coinage. Pre 1965 dimes, quarters, and halves are 90 per cent silver, and can be bought and sold easily. Technically, one thousand dollars face value in US coinage has 725 ounces troy of silver. Because they are worn, the actual content might be around 715 ounces - this is the figure used by most dealers. I have always liked the Walking Liberty half dollar, easily one of the coolest looking coins ever. In fact the Eagle coins stole the design. Anyway, you can figure out the price by moving the decimal - 100 dollars face equals roughly 71.5 ozt, times the spot price, equals cost in current greenbacks. That makes a silver dime “worth” over four bucks. Amazing. Spot is over $47 right now.
However, I have seen some scare-sites on the subject, such as: The 'Almost' Perfect Counterfeit