Posted on 11/13/2009 6:45:21 AM PST by SeekAndFind
You could also drill and plug a small void in the tungsten bar to make the fake exact.
My preferred approach would be to cast Tungsten cores into gold bars, so you had only 10% gold, and a millimeter (or so) of real gold on the outside to provide an assayable veneer.
It would probably take some serious technology to get gold to bond to tungsten (maybe the copper over lead bulletmakers could help?). Imagine the shock of dropping a big gold bar, and seeing its gold skin split open, revealing a dull grey interior monolith. It would make a good scene in a movie!
The giveaway for me that the story as written is bogus is the "certain detail" (sic) concerning 400 oz tungsten blanks, being plated in a paper thin layer of gold. No way. The fraud would be too easy to discover, even by humble vault employees during normal stacking and counting.
If this story said that 300 oz tungsten blanks were molded inside of 100 oz of gold, it would be more plausible. Then, fraud between willing players might work. (But both sides would have to be aware of the fraud, and have a reason to keep quiet about it.)
But a 400 oz tungsten blank with a few mills of gold plate?
No frikkin way.
The way I would write this novel, a vault employee who is also a university student accidentally uncovers the secret. The people he tells begin to die, and attempts are made to bump him off “accidentally.” He tells the CFO about the tungsten bars, but learns that the principals already know. He doesn’t learn this immediately, but only after his girlfriend is poisoned (meant to be his drink), they attempt to kill him during a “mugging” etc.
Great potential there for a novel or screenplay.
In 1980, 20 oz of gold would buy you a $16,000 car.
Maybe you should look at annual averages to get a better grasp of economic reality.
(Funny how those with “Gold Derangement Syndrome” are like the global waring nuts. First, it was “warming”, the equivalent of (”you’ll lose money on gold!”) Then,when the contrary occurs, they retreat to “Climate Change!” or “price volatility!”
There are lots of investments that others have liked but I have thought were stupid over the years. As a mentally healthy person, I haven’t invested any energy crusading against them. I let the market do the work.
I advocate the progressive new idea of letting the market decide. I know, letting the market run the monetary system rather than a cabal of czarist central state planners is a radical thought for a conservative such as yourself. Hope I don't scare you too much. ;-)
The market could and should decide not only the price of money, but what is used as money itself, including credit money.
Of course this would mean that banks that made bad decisions would have to eat their own losses. But hey, the market can't do everything.
Monetary anarchy! Hundreds of currencies circulating side by side. Great idea! LOL!
The creator of this Youtube video is pretty good at reading the tea leaves.
I suspect that one could develop a reliable test that involved a computer analysis of the timbre of bars when struck in a controlled way (think xylophone), and the harmonics of a tungsten-loaded bar would be vastly different than anything in the range of normal gold bars.
Then again something like an ultrasound or Xray would probably be simplest.
I don't think X-rays would penetrate very far into a gold bar.
I agree. But no matter what test is used, the fraud will only work until it is suspected. Any outfit that suspects they have been sold a bogus bar will simply melt one down in the presence of unimpeachable witnesses, immediately after taking delivery. The gold will melt off quickly, leaving a perfect tungsten block for all to see.
The sellers will then need to be on a jet for Patagonia, under new names. They and their firm will be out of the gold business forever.
Swing - you nailed it precisely. The bankster apologists (toddster, panama, et al) believe in the free market for everything but money, which is logically inconsistent.
Somehow the market is smart enough to figure out the correct pricing for oil, wheat, steel, copper, corn, cars (oops not anymore), houses (oops not anymore).
But the price of money (i.e. interest rates)? NOOOOOO. That has to be managed by a Soviet command economy style process. Big Ben and Timmy (and let’s not forget mister bubbles himself, Greenspan) have done such a great job, haven’t they?
I have to hand it to the banksters though, they have done an excellent PR / brainwashing job here - they’ve convinced almost everyone.
Forget, for the moment, Fed targets for overnight interest rates, what about the money supply?
Guilty as charged. Hundreds, dozens or (probably) just a few. Multiple monies have circulated in this country in the past and the country not only survived, it even grew! But then, thank goodness, they thought of a better idea - the fed - with one of it's stated purposes being to stabilize prices. Great job they've done with that, huh?
Great idea! LOL!
It IS a great idea, huh? Glad you agree! ;-)
Ben has decided with a few keystrokes to massively increase the money supply.
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?chart_type=line&s[1][id]=M1&s[1][range]=5yrs
So you think:
1) he knows that it needs to be increased and by how much?
2) he knows what the $ should be worth?
3) he should be able to devalue MY hard earned dollars with a key stroke by increasing the supply massively?
I’ll take gold, thank you very much. Can’t be created at will by soviet style command economy central planners (read: The federal reserve). It’s a better form of money, pure and simple. Look at a 10 year chart of gold vs fiat currencies - the trend is your friend (maybe not yours).
You think that is good?
Supervising and regulating banking institutions to ensure the safety and soundness of the nation's banking and financial system, and protect the credit rights of consumers.
So you'll have one bank account for your "Amex Dollars", one for your "JP Morgan Dollars", one for your "Visa Dollars" one for your "WalMart Dollars" etc etc?
It IS a great idea, huh?
No.
Nope, I wouldn't have any JP Morgan Dollars... wouldn't trust 'em.
Yes he did.
So you think: 1) he knows that it needs to be increased and by how much?
You don't think the Fed has control over the money supply, do you? You don't think the Fed has control over interest rates, do you?
3) he should be able to devalue MY hard earned dollars with a key stroke by increasing the supply massively?
Your hard earned dollars are worth more than they were last year, even after the money supply increased. How is that possible?
I’ll take gold, thank you very much
Are all your assets in gold?
It’s a better form of money, pure and simple.
When you go to the gas station or grocery store, how do you pay for your purchase?
Which of the hundreds of new currencies would you use?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.