Re: news letter about gold; long, but interesting read
Mr. Jaggers
> Dude, Is That Gold Bar for Real?
>
> As the 10-year gold bull continues its stunning run, rumors of fakery
> seem to be cropping up as fast as new Eagles can be minted. Should you
> be worried? Do you need to run to the coin shop for a home test kit?
>
> Well, the counterfeiters are out there, and have been for millennia,
> but how to counter them?
>
> You probably remember movies about the Old West, wherein a
> shady-looking character would offer to exchange a gold coin for a
> horse, and the nag's owner would bite down on the coin. That was about
> all you could do, if you lacked proper assaying equipment and had to
> make a snap judgment on the fly: depend on your teeth to tell you
> whether the metal in your hand was sufficiently soft to be genuine
> gold.
>
> The bite test is actually a pretty good one since gold, despite being
> among the heaviest metals, is also very soft. If you chomp down and
> shatter a tooth, it ain't gold. But does that mean you need to munch
> your way through your coin collection? In a word, no.
I lost interest as soon as I saw the ad that appeared right here.
James
Bob
> and we've never heard of anyone being slipped a fake Eagle or Maple
> Leaf. Just to be on the safe side, though, we checked with a dealer of
> 30 years' experience and got the same answer. Nope. Only seen a couple
> over the past three decades.
>
> The thing is, it's really impractical. Any counterfeit bullion coin
> would have to be gold in order to pass. If it were pure, then what
> would be the point? And if the counterfeiter skimped on the gold
> content, the coin's weight would be a dead giveaway. The only
> alternative would be to gold-plate a coin made out of some other
> metal. But again, getting the weight right while preserving the
> correct size would be a challenge. In the end, there's just not enough
> of a profit margin to make it worthwhile.
While the anonymous author of this puff piece may never have seen a
fake Maple Leaf, a Chicago jeweler was scammed out of a LOT of money
by them about three years or so ago. He was offered a genuine Maple
Leaf, which was cut in half to show that it was solid gold. He took
the pieces to Gold Dust Coins in Chicago for an offer, and was offered
scrap (since the coin had been destroyed), but was told what they
would pay for normal coins. (He was offered the fakes by the scammers
at something like half gold value, with some cock and bull story about
confidentiality, etc.--the people at Gold Dust tried to talk him out
of wasting his money, to no avail.) He then returned to Gold Dust a
couple of days later with 80 or so "Maple Leafs" (do not recall the
number now, but it was high), and--except for the cut piece and one
other, all were NOT EVEN GOLD. As soon as you picked one up, you
could tell that it was too light.