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field testing gold bars. Cut test showed gold but was fake.

Mission16Mission16 Posts: 1,413 ✭✭✭
Here's the story as told to me:
Fellow offers to sell gold bars, chains and a Rolex for stupid cheap. Bar is scraped with a knife and shows gold. Deal is done.
Buyer takes it to sell it and all is fake.
What method did the seller use to cut that bar and show gold?

Comments

  • derrybderryb Posts: 36,779 ✭✭✭✭✭
    bar was plated with gold. Knife only scraped the surface.

    "Interest rates, the price of money, are the most important market. And, perversely, they’re the market that’s most manipulated by the Fed." - Doug Casey

  • PerryHallPerryHall Posts: 46,106 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Most bullion dealers use a small jeweler's file to cut a small notch into the edge of the bar for testing with nitric acid---"the acid test". I've seen a few older US gold coins with this test cut on the edge. These test cuts are very small when properly done and can be missed when first looking at a large gold coin or bar but it goes deep enough to break through any gold plating.

    Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
    "Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
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  • Mission16Mission16 Posts: 1,413 ✭✭✭
    What if the cut was through the raised rim on edge of bar? Cut through rim to the flat surface of bar.

    I'm trying to get the buyer to let me examine the bar in hand but this is what I'm told
  • rte592rte592 Posts: 1,662 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Fellow needs better testing methods.



  • derrybderryb Posts: 36,779 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Originally posted by: Mission16
    What if the cut was through the raised rim on edge of bar? Cut through rim to the flat surface of bar.

    I'm trying to get the buyer to let me examine the bar in hand but this is what I'm told


    One would have to cut through the plating to know it was plated. Plated items contain a core made of a material that is either lighter or heavier than gold. For an item that weighs correctly this would require the dimensions to be slightly different than those of an authentic bar. Without the aid of a precious metal verifier instrument, one would have to verify correct weight and correct dimensions.

    "Interest rates, the price of money, are the most important market. And, perversely, they’re the market that’s most manipulated by the Fed." - Doug Casey

  • ashelandasheland Posts: 23,183 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Originally posted by: rte592
    Fellow needs better testing methods.



    image
  • AUandAGAUandAG Posts: 24,759 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Specific gravity test would work just fine....no damaging.



    bobimage



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  • CaptHenwayCaptHenway Posts: 32,112 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Who did the test cut? The crook may have just indented an area, pushing the gold plating down without breaking through it.



    Another con game is to show genuine product for testing, after which the crook puts the product in his pocket for "just a second" while he makes a phone call to get an OK to sell it from his wife or whomever, and then pull the fake(s) of the exact same product out of the same pocket and say "OK." Had a guy try this at the shop I worked at in Chicago. Of course I caught it.
    Numismatist. 50 year member ANA. Winner of four ANA Heath Literary Awards; three Wayte and Olga Raymond Literary Awards; Numismatist of the Year Award 2009, and Lifetime Achievement Award 2020. Winner numerous NLG Literary Awards.
  • CakesCakes Posts: 3,626 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Originally posted by: CaptHenway
    Who did the test cut? The crook may have just indented an area, pushing the gold plating down without breaking through it.

    Another con game is to show genuine product for testing, after which the crook puts the product in his pocket for "just a second" while he makes a phone call to get an OK to sell it from his wife or whomever, and then pull the fake(s) of the exact same product out of the same pocket and say "OK." Had a guy try this at the shop I worked at in Chicago. Of course I caught it.



    Well done Cappy, you really have to be on your A game to avoid scammers in all walks of life.
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  • Mission16Mission16 Posts: 1,413 ✭✭✭
    None of the bars show the cut. Buyer did not realize until I asked about it. So it was clearly switched.

    Everything I was told about the transaction raised alarms with me. Buyer got stupid and greedy and ended up several grand poorer.
  • piecesofmepiecesofme Posts: 6,669 ✭✭✭
    Originally posted by: Mission16

    None of the bars show the cut. Buyer did not realize until I asked about it. So it was clearly switched.



    Everything I was told about the transaction raised alarms with me. Buyer got stupid and greedy and ended up several grand poorer.




    and they'll be on eBay before you know it, sadly.
    To forgive is to free a prisoner, and to discover that prisoner was you.
  • BAJJERFANBAJJERFAN Posts: 31,082 ✭✭✭✭✭
    An FYI
    theknowitalltroll;
  • jdimmickjdimmick Posts: 9,672 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Capt Henway,

    Had this happen to a dealer friend I was fronting. GUy had the real maples, I checked each and every coin, but when I handed the real coins and cash to the dealer I was fronting to make the deal, they got switched. Course I was the one out the funds.
  • rickoricko Posts: 98,724 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Wow...nasty scam... one must be on their game - 100% - or disaster. Cheers, RickO
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