Without_a_car Clutched December 1, 2011 Share December 1, 2011 By MERLIN LAFLEUR, 2009/12/02 http://gold-quote.net/en/articles/fake-tun...n-gold-bars.php The counterfeit story This October, bankers in Hong Kong were in for a rude shock when they discovered some gold bars from the US to be actually gold plated tungsten i.e., fake gold bars. Acting fast, the Chinese officials found the perpetrators within hours. It seems that fake Tungsten blanks, between 1.3 and 1.5 million 400 oz, were manufactured in the US about fifteen years ago during the Clinton administration. Said to have been done by a very sophisticated refiner, 640,000 of these tungsten planks were gold plated and shifted to Fort Knox. The remaining also gold plated, but sold into the international market. (Fort Knox , as you may be aware, is the United States Bullion Depository, where the official gold reserves of the federal government are stored. This depository of about 4,603 tons (4 176 metric tonness) is the second highest gold depository in the US after the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's underground vault in Manhattan (5,000 metric tonness of gold). Whoever pulled this one on the gold bars had connections inside the government, big banks and also a top-of-the-line fabrication facility. For, counterfeit is not something new for the US government, it did this is 1964 when zinc dimes clad in silver were introduced. That's why the pre 1964 coins are valued more. Elsewhere, early this year, another counterfeit story made rounds as some of the gold bars in the vaults of the National bank of Ethiopia were found to be gold plated steel. It made news when the shipment of gold was returned by South Africa. It only could have been the work of a genius as fake gold bars made of steel are among the easiest to detect as they are lighter. Among gold coins, 22k Gold coins such as Krugerrand, are less likely to be counterfeited because the density of 22k gold minted from gold alloy that is 91.67 percent pure, is far apart from that of tungsten. Tungsten has the same density (19.25g/cm3) as gold, so a fake bar is indistinguishable by weighing it. In comparison the density of pure 24k gold is within 0.26% of tungsten. ↡ Advertisement Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
1fast1 Supersonic December 1, 2011 Share December 1, 2011 US lagi best. Can outplay China at its own game (fakery). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Without_a_car Clutched December 1, 2011 Author Share December 1, 2011 After this particular incident, Chinese government conducted a check on it's entire 1000 ton inventory. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
1fast1 Supersonic December 1, 2011 Share December 1, 2011 (edited) Did a search. Still not sure if this has any truth behind it, or whether it's just a cuckoo conspiracy theory. Oh, well. I never thought gold was inherently all-that-valuable anyway. To me, the love for gold is as irrational as the love for Dutch tulip bulbs once upon a time, and we all know how that turned out. Edited December 1, 2011 by Turboflat4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mustank Hypersonic December 1, 2011 Share December 1, 2011 long time ago, salt was the currency. then gold. i tell you tomorrow is uranium, plutonium and all the heavy metal stuff! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
1fast1 Supersonic December 1, 2011 Share December 1, 2011 long time ago, salt was the currency. then gold. i tell you tomorrow is uranium, plutonium and all the heavy metal stuff! Till cold fusion becomes a reality. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mustank Hypersonic December 1, 2011 Share December 1, 2011 When Man masters energy where energy can be converted to any matter Man wants at will.............. i don know whether it is better to live in this age or that age Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shull Turbocharged December 1, 2011 Share December 1, 2011 At this current age, this sort of news will make it into mainstream media almost immediately.. esp medias from regions that don't really like uncle sam... ↡ Advertisement Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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