Posted on 03/26/2012 2:54:56 PM PDT by KeyLargo
Report of 1 Kilo Gold Bar Filled with Tungsten Found in UK
March 26, 2012
What appears to be a tungsten filled gold bar has been found this time in the UK. It is believed that a scrap dealer bought the Metalor 1 kilo gold bar of 99.98% purity from a member of the public.
Metalor are a leading international gold refiner and bar manufacturer, headquartered in Zurich. The bar appears to have been tampered with and may have had holes drilled into it or melted out and then had tungsten rods inserted or tungsten poured into the holes.
Tungsten is a metal with a similar density to gold but which bullion dealers and experts in physical bullion can easily identify.
It follows an incident of a tungsten filled gold bar (500 gram) originating from an unnamed bank being found by Heraeus in Germany two years ago [See Video Below] and there have been rumours of tungsten filled gold bars in Asia, China and in Vietnam.
There was also an unverified report in 2009 that the Chinese received a fake shipment of gold that, in fact, was tungsten. The bars have led to much speculation regarding the possibility that some of the gold bars making up central bank gold reserves may not be investment grade gold bullion.
Presidential candidate, Ron Paul has raised the question as to whether the gold bars in Fort Knox are authentic and even asked whether some of the US gold reserves have been secretly sold off and asked questions regarding the authenticity of the US gold reserves gold bars.
In the UK, there have been doubts about the quality of Britains paltry remaining gold stock as some of the gold bars are reportedly cracked, have fissures and are beginning to crumble. The Bank of England have denied suggestions that the gold may have been adulterated, and insisted that most of the hoard is in mint condition.
The incident shows the importance of dealing with reputable and trusted experts in physical bullion coins and bars and with dealing with counter parties who take these issues seriously.
About two weeks ago the market was hit with someone selling one million ounces of gold, it was speculated as a war time tactic to buy fuel and munitions, but that was just a speculation and why gold dropped from its high perch by nearly $100 and ounce.
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I saw this in some 1970s tv show/movie shortly after gold became legal to own in the US again.
The team “borrows” a colleague’s newly purchased gold investment bar to push as the randomly selected bar from the gold-coated tungsten stash they’re selling to some criminal.
The pushed bar is sawed in half, they get the money, swap the real cut bar for a faked cut tungsten bar, and skedaddle.
The criminals use a power saw on other samples, revealing the white tungsten.
Obviously, the ending scene is where the colleague gets his bar back in pieces and filings.
The density of tungsten is just 1.45% greater than that of gold, so the difference will be very small. So, make sure your scales are accurate and that the result is within 0.5% of what is expected.
He didn’t have to measure the volumes accurately.
All he had to do was put a bucket on each end of a balance, level the balance, and then put the overflow water from the crown in one bucket and the overflow from the reference mass in the other bucket, and see if they were the same weight.
He fired the employee who discovered the fake gold bar...the "old Fox".
“Open wide for Chunky!”
CA....
Open wide for Chunky!
I liked the dark chocolate ones with raisins.
As for the gold fraudsters, I expect that they’ll be opening wide for something.
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