Posted on 09/18/2012 7:08:59 PM PDT by Perdogg
It is one thing for tungsten-filled gold bars to appear in the UK, or in Germany: after all out of sight, and across the Atlantic, certainly must mean out of mind, and out of the safe. However, when a 10 ounce 999.9 gold bar bearing the stamp of the reputable Swiss Produits Artistiques Métaux Précieux (PAMP, with owner MTP) and a serial number (serial #038892, likely rehypothecated in at least 10 gold ETFs across the world but that's a different story), mysteriously emerges in the heart of the world's jewerly district located on 47th street in Manhattan, things get real quick. Moments ago, Myfoxny reported that a 10-ounce gold bar costing nearly $18,000 turned out to be a counterfeit. The discovery was made by the dealer Ibrahim Fadl, who bought the PAMP bar in question from a merchant who has sold him real gold before. "But he heard counterfeit gold bars were going around, so he drilled into several of his gold bars worth $100,000 and saw gray tungsten -- not gold. The bar was filled with tungsten, which weighs nearly the same as gold but costs just over a dollar an ounce."
(Excerpt) Read more at zerohedge.com ...
So, do you carry one of those with you and will it still work when the SHTF?
Life sure is complicated ain’t it?
LOL
The specific gravities are pretty close. 19.29 for gold, 19.62 for tungsten. By the time you get to a 10 oz bar, with a fairly thick coating of gold, the difference is a tad tighter.
Well...at least it would make one excellent rivet bucking bar.
That would not detect these bars. They are surrounded by a fairly thick gold layer, not gold plated.
If his undies turn brown, then you know it's a fake! :)
I would much rather uncover chocolate... :-)
Have I got a deal for you. I’ll cut them in half on my own bandsaw for free!
Goldbug ping.
You sure you don’t mean .001 cents in 2014 dollars?
Archimedes didn’t know about tungsten, which has a density almost equal to gold, 19.25 g/cm3 versus gold’s 19.30 g/cm3.
Simple test - bend it over a solid steel bar; the tungsten won’t bend, the 9999.9% pure will.
Careful, the word “whoopie” has a darker meaning these days.
If given the same dimensions then they will not weigh the same.
TSA agent, perhaps? /sarc>
Cheers!
Without knowing the specifics of the detector, you cannot make such a judgment (what energy/intensity of x-ray source, sensitivity of detection). Some XRF devices will probably not work, some will work. But this is a very specific application. I'm sure some mfg. will come up with a dedicated device that targets this specific application.
Believe me, I understand the physics here. My minor subject in grad school was nuclear science, a fair segment of which was about non-destructive testing using radiographic devices. I'm sure plain old x-radiography with Co-60 and film would quickly distinguish such fake bars....and that the new fully electronic and computerized (and much more sensitive) detectors would do even better.
You can see in the pics that the layer of gold is quite thick. I doubt the bars would get far if they could be detected so easily.
They know such checks are going to be done. They know gold plating will not work. That’s why they go to the trouble of hollowing out actual gold bars.
I’m actually far more interested in how they are hollowing out the actual gold bars, and how they are sealing them up again without this being visually noticeable.
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