Fake gold bars turn up in Manhattan

http://www.myfoxny.com/story/19578206/fake-gold-bars-turn-up-in-manhattan

 

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Hey... it's no different than the tungsten filled bars residing in Ft. Knox, so there shouldn't be a problem.

 

Wow........just WoW. Thanks for posting!


Ebay here I come............as you see me running away.

 

One of the reasons i stay away from bars or even large denominations of gold coins.

 

Here is the main problem IMO,

Why didn't he buy from the manufacturer with safe delivery? Probably thought he was getting a " Killer rip" deal. Not unlike many who show up here with eBay and Craiglist look-alikes. And why did he drill these bars only IMO.

 

Good reason to only collect gold coins, even 1/10th in size.

 

What's scary is there are companies who will just make the fakes for you. Buy in China, sell on ebay.

Anyone need a tungsten-filled, gold-plated Krugerrand?

http://www.tungsten-alloy.com/tungsten-alloy-scan-gold-coin.html

 

It's a shame that the US allows these websites to be viewed by anyone and anyone here can buy those fakes. They are fakes from China so the US should do all we can to discourage the sale by not allowing their websites to show here in the US. Obviously China is trying to screw us any way they can so the US should be blocking their citizens from taking advantage of our citizens. jmho

 

What about censorship?
Don't China block website on the internet from their people now?

How would doing what you suggest make us any different from what China is doing with the internet and censorship?

 

Personally I don't care about how we look if it helps to keep their counterfeits out of the US. :thumb:

 

IMO i think it is best to stick with non bullion'. Cost of retooling and make a counterfeit for different design is time consuming process and requires trial and error so they would stick with issues' that are mass produced in millions'. So commemorative silver or gold issues' with limited mintage should be the safe buys.

 

I agree something should be done, but I don't think censorship is the answer.

 

Tungsten can not be readily cast into bars due to its high melting temperature, so is chemically produced in a powdered form which is molded using adhesives or lesser dense metals. This powdered form ( not being a continuous piece such as melted/cooled gold alloy) and being separated by a low density adhesive reacts very differently to wave form transmission than a solid gold alloy. The larger bars in commodity exchange and supposedly in government storage have probably been checked often as the equipment does not have to be overly complicated and expensive, but not common either. It is on the level of a doppler scan device. If the necessity increases, there will be a laptop device. Theoretically ( I have not researched this), if a "ping" of the object is fed into a microphone and audio editing program, there should be a difference in waveform between a gold bar and a gold plated tungsten bar. AIMO.

Jim

 

Yeah, I don't know the real answer to the problem all I have is an opinion. My guess is Congress would have to do something about it but priorities are messed up on that front. I guess Congress only sees this as a problem for con collectors but they are wrong.

 

Jim, can't you also do simple test for its conductivity (magnetic slide for example) since tungsten is less conductive than Gold? Granted you need to genuine deal to compare your results with.

Also what is typical cost of manufacturing tunsten?

 

From what I read, some of the plated bars will test Ok with the low cost jewelry probes, if the plate is thick enough. Some of the testing machines lack resolution for accurate determinations. I haven't read anything about the magnetic properties, so I can't answer that, but yes if tungsten had a lower melting point that could be cast, we would have a large numismatic problem. Education as to what counterfeiting of metal is occurring is the first major step, and finding webpages that advertise it may give hints what to watch out for. People are always going to buy it on Craigslist from "someone who doesn't know its value" for half the price of gold , and then bemoan their fate.

I don't know the actual cost of wolfram ( ore) or the chemicals involved. I suspect much less than the processing of gold with cyanide process, but no actual figures in my head.

 

Wow. I suppose we should check Fort Knox too.

 

Like I said in post #2, no need to check... those "gold" bars in Knox are not genuine. You should know that by now Tracy.

 

Yup go with smaller bars and coins which make tungsten-filling too costly per unit.

 

Please, not another conspiracy theory!