thx for the reply....things to think about...
The last thought I have for you is, see if you can make friends with a local jeweler or local coin shop who has a Sigma precious metals verifier machine where you can give him maybe $5 a coin/bar/round to plop whatever you buy from whomever you buy it from onto the machine and have it verified.
The proliferation of fakes in the business has stopped me in my tracks from buying anything for the last 8 or so years. It started with Morgan silver dollars but is so pervasive these days it scares the hell out of me. I have heard of fake Franklin halves and Washington quarters for pity’s sake.
The Sigma is a machine that sends out a signal and checks for the resonance or reflection of the pulse through the coin/bar/round. They have become the standard if the industry. They can work through a plastic holder (eg; slab) or PVC flip. Used ones are about a grand for the old (perfectly good) model, $1300 vanilla/$1700 deluxe in new condition. The newer version of the product is maybe $300-$400 more. There is utterly nothing wrong with the older model.
Though that sounds pricey, buying (or I should say avoiding buying) just one fake ounce of gold pays for the machine. In 2023, I would not even consider acquiring gold with such a machine or access to same. No way, no how, not even close. There are numbers of YT videos on the use of a Sigma Metalytics machine.