Gold vs gold plated?

Gold has a strong electromagnetic response. Not sure if tungsten has any at all, but I'm pretty sure you can use this method to differentiate the two.

 

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University of Illinois, Physics Department:

"Pure gold is not magnetic. That is, it doesn’t form a magnet on its own. If you put it in a magnetic field it will magnetize a tiny bit, but only so long as it’s in the field. and the direction of the magnetization makes it weakly repel the magnet.

There are alloys of gold, for example gold with more than about 20% of the atoms replaced by iron, which do magnetize on their own, at least when they are very cold, much colder than room temperature..."

 

Don't confuse magnetism with electromagnetism. Precious metals are not generally magnetic, but the are highly electromagnetic.

 

No it screams FOCUS!

Sorry

Tungsten is close enough that gold plated tungsten will pass a SG test (Might have to add a trace of a lighter density metal to the tungsten to get it perfect). Silver SG can be matched with a Lead/Tin alloy. It wouldn't look right so it would HAVE to be silver plated as well.

 

Yeah, and I know I brought up tungsten, but remember tungsten is not very cheap, and very difficult to work with. I think it has the highest melting point known. So while it CAN be used to mimic AU specific gravity, the odds are pretty low it would show up in an AGE.

 

Here is a better photo of the beagle:

 

Very true. However, in those cases the tungsten was inserted into the bars and the gold was melted to form around the tungsten. That is a lot different than trying to strike tungsten into a coin and then gold plate it. If they tried to insert a flat disc of tungsten, then gold plate, and THEN strike it, I would imagine there would be telltale signs on the coin.

 

http://www.alibaba.com/showroom/gold-plated-tungsten-coin.html
aren't we lucky alibaba is selling in the US?

 

Thanks, great post. Seems quite cost-effective to gold-plate this "expensive, hard-to-work metal," wouldn't you say? One listing shows a gram-scale in the background, no doubt bragging that the fake's the correct weight...

Overheard at the coin show,
Everything's suspect except Me and You, and sometimes I'm not so sure about You.

Next thing you know, we'll have aerosol toning spray, available in six non-toxic rainbow colors.

 

Wow that is scary. Found a few others just like it showing weight, thickness and diameter. US Secret Service should be notified, this is outright counterfeiting in my opinion.

 

It's a shame when I hear everyday so many stories of people buying large gold bars and when it's time to cash in for retirement, It's 90 % tungsten

 

Hi grade tungsten the thickness of an AGE ( 2.87mm) 1 oz. coin would have to struck while heated to 900 deg.C. to configure to the dies ( I suspect the dies would have an extremely short life if possible at all). For most bars, they use tungsten granules epoxied together and then gold plated. Bullion Bars do not have the fine details of coins, so the fake ( which they can not drill internally) can be detected by sound wave transmission through the bar. I would suspect that the coins are epoxied also, plated with a layer of silver that is then struck with dies and the resulting then thinly plated with gold. I suspect the sound wave transmission would determine them as well as it does bars.
At least that is how I would start

 

If the fakes contain epoxy, wouldn't heating them to say, 500 C, cause them to fall apart? What is the range of melting points for that type of epoxy?

I would share in the cost of obtaining 20 or 30 pieces direct from China (or more, if many CT members want a sample), and retain two for future comparison. Anyone else interested?

 

Is it Proof or Unc ? Does he have a US Mint COA for it ?

Here is 2012 that I got from the US Mint & had graded last fall.

 

The heating would only be necessary if one was stamping out tungsten metal ( no epoxy). Tungsten granules, filament, foil, etc. doesn't need heat to be pressed in a coin or bar mold with epoxy and allowed to harden and then plated.

 

tungsten is a really hard metal. it would be very tough to stamp it with the correct detailed relief of an AGE. then if you plated it the micro flow lines (luster) of a real coin wouldn't be there.

 

Yes, that is what I was meaning. No doubt these fakes are not struck, so evidence os striking would be absent if you were educated on what to look for.

 

Maybe, maybe not. They can do incredibly thin flash platings with thicknesses down to a few millionths of an inch.