[suthener]

Guy at a coin store showed me a packaged 1 ounce gold bar that was fake. The package had been opened for them to inspect the bar, but looked totally legitimate with even a hologram serial number sticker. The bar, which they had cut in half, was a lead bar with gold plate. The weight tipped them off. Buyer beware. I would never buy precious metals from anyone other than a reputable dealer, though I did see a pretty appealing 1 ounce gold bar on ebay for $29.99.

[marktwain]

When I was in Australia, a freind attempted to sell some silver Australian coins. Australia had minted a few silver coins for a short period.

Two of the coins were fake. Wrong weight, wrong dimensions.

Good looking fakes, though.

[Anti-Bubba182]

The best fakes are made using Tungsten, slightly lighter than gold. 19.25g/cm3 vs gold (19.3g/cm3)

[Red Badger]

Really good fakes use tungsten instead of lead.

The weight is nearly the same as gold per unit volume................

19.30 g/cm3 u for gold

vs

19.25 g/cm3 for tungsten

vs

11.34 g/cm3 for lead

[Swordmaker]

Guy at a coin store showed me a packaged 1 ounce gold bar that was fake. The package had been opened for them to inspect the bar, but looked totally legitimate with even a hologram serial number sticker. The bar, which they had cut in half, was a lead bar with gold plate. The weight tipped them off. Buyer beware. I would never buy precious metals from anyone other than a reputable dealer, though I did see a pretty appealing 1 ounce gold bar on ebay for $29.99.

Tungsten is even worse than lead. It is close in weight and mass, and there are Chinese companies that are willing to sell 24K Gold Clad coins and even bars that the outside tests are pure gold, but the inside is tungsten. The mass checks right. The only test that catches them is to drill into the tungsten.

Tungsten Alloy Fake Gold Bar

[Islander7]

I did see a pretty appealing 1 ounce gold bar on ebay for $29.99.

Sounds legit.

[COBOL2Java]