When they were sawing that bar open, it looked like the gold layer on the outside was visibly thick. Given that, I'm surprised an XRF device was able to penetrate the gold layer. (At least I assume that's what they were using; I don't know what else would non-destructively read out elemental percentages like that.) I'm also surprised that the guy was just plopping the bar on top of a plate like that for a reading, with no shielding or other radiation precautions. Seems sketchy to me.
I think it's an XRF tester, and yeah, I want one, too. They cost about as much as a new car. Edit to add: or about as much as you'd lose buying five or ten fake gold ounces.
You can get an XRF tester for under $2000 and they are not radioactive so perfectly safe. In a couple of weeks I will post about how an XRF tester exposed a crook who traded something worth $7500 dollars and the XRF tester subsequently showed the 17th Coin was made in recent years. Before 1800 Silver showed traces of gold and lead until they knew how to refine it out and my coin was pure silver although aged.. I would have bet my life on that coin but the XRF tester and unfortunately a TPG proved me wrong. Once the legals are out of the way I'll post my experience.
My local coin shop zaps everything with their gun. It was funny when my stepmom was selling off some jewelry they zapped the bunch(well one piece at a time) - pulled one earring out of the bunch and said that one is not gold. So one earring was gold and one was not gold.
PS - it did not really say where he got them from. Some people think they can buy fake stuff and take it to the local shop to try to sell them as real.
10 gram Gold Bar - The Perth Mint - 99.99 Fine in Sealed Assay | eBay Here's one on ebay. The seller has a total of 3 feedback left, and 2 of them are negatives saying it's fake gold. I don't know why ebay hasn't banned them already...
Because EBAY's AI sucks - it just checks the auction to make nothing is listed in the auction incorrectly. I doubt it looks at feed back.
And the 3rd feedback was automated, ostensibly because the buyer waited too long for a conclusion before leaving it. In my opinion, eBay IS uncontestedly . . . Counterfeit Central.
All eBay cares about is getting their 13.5% selling fee. I think what they're doing is likely criminal.
You must be thinking of something else. I've seen used units listed for under $10K, but never under $5K, and I wouldn't trust that the ones on the low end are really in working order. New ones start in five figures. And the name is "X-Ray Fluorescence" - they work by firing high(ish)-energy X-rays at a sample, and reading the (lower-energy) X-rays that the sample re-emits. I guess you could argue that they're not technically "radioactive", but X-rays are still ionizing radiation, the kind that damages DNA.
You are absolutely right @-jeffB I was looking at this : https://www.alibaba.co.uk/product-d...trysiteuk.normal_offer.d_image.1949215bWJMzdV Taking a look at the hand held ones such as the one in my local pawn shop advertised, and their prices, I am not so sure I would trust such a cheap instrument. I guess if you are testing something with a big lump of copper in the middle it would work but if you wanted a super accurate reading to determine precise composition it might not.
