Real News About Fake Gold.
Seems we live in a totally fake world now. Ever since Trump's tag line, "fake news," everything is turning up fake. I have always known about fake statistics, fake information, fake people and yes even fake bullion, but when a story about fake gold came out about a one ounce ingot that supposedly came from the Royal Canadian Mint as being fake, that was enough to raise an eyebrow.
Turns out that a jeweler in Toronto bought a one ounce gold wafer from the Royal Bank in Toronto that was supposedly purchased from the Royal Canadian Mint. The jeweler takes the one ounce wafer, cuts open the plastic packaging that the wafer is sealed in and proceeds to run the wafer through a rolling mill. Problem is the wafer won't roll out. Because gold is soft an malliable it rolls out very nice. I know this for a fact because my wife is a silversmith and she has a rolling mill in her studio that she uses and both gold and silver will roll out and flatten with no problems. However, this guy was having having problems as his gold would not roll so becoming curious he decides to bend it and at that point it snaps. After seeing a so called gold wafer snap, he knew that what he had was not gold but just to be sure he does and acid test on the so called gold wafer only to find out that indeed it was fake gold.
Now of course the jeweler takes that wafer back to where he purchaed and of course it the usual response you would get back from bank where as tehy would not take the so called bullion back. So the jeweler contact the nation news agency, CBC and only after they contact the bank about the situation does the bank refund the jeweler his money. Of course the bank contact the Royal Canadian Mint who examines the wafer and says the wafer is not from the mint even though bar was stamped with the Royal Canadian Mint's insignia, and the packaging it came in also had the mint's name.
So where did the fake gold wafer come from? Most likely overseas. Produced with tungsten and a thin coating of gold it was produced and sold through various buyers along the way until it appears in a bank vault. And this isn't an isolated incident. There are always stories about fake gold bars and coins being found. In this case the person who bought the gold was going to use the metal for jewellry and was not interested instoring it for safe keeping. This is what most gold is bought for. Safe keeping as an investment is a great idea but if the so called bullion you paid top dollar for is junk metal it is no longer an investment.
The real problem though is just how many other fake wafers and bars are out there and the owners don't even know. If there is one there will be more. You can count on that and that's the real sad part in this case. This all boils down to the fact of knowing what you are buying. Make sure you get certificates with your bullion and if you get bullion bars of silver, make sure they have stamped serial numbers along with records from the bank or wherever you purchased. Aside from that you can always do what a lot of the reader of junior miners here do and that is follow my motto, "Don't buy gold, buy a gold mine" instead. Having your own small mining claim where you can go out and sluice a bit of gold even during a summer break is a great way to get out in the fresh air, spend time with family or buddies and get some REAL gold that you know is not FAKE. Junior miners has listings of gold mining claims both hard rock and placer in locations all around the world and in prices that fit everyones budget.
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PS: Here is a link to the orginal story.
