How To Make Fake Gold Bars
Status: Advice for would-be criminals
Recently the national bank of Ethiopia discovered that much of the gold in its possession was fake. It was simply gold-plated steel. It found this out after it sent a shipment of gold to South Africa, which promptly sent it back.Theo Gray, writing for popsci.com, points out that it's incredible that a national bank fell for a fraud like this, since simply by picking up the gold bars someone should have noticed that they were too light to be real -- gold being much heavier than steel.
Gray then considers a potentially very useful question: how could you create a fake gold bar that would be convincing enough to pass the pick-up test? The solution he comes up with is to use tungsten, which is about as heavy as gold, but much cheaper:
start with a tungsten slug about 1/8-inch smaller in each dimension than the gold bar you want, then cast a 1/16-inch layer of real pure gold all around it. This bar would feel right in the hand, it would have a dead ring when knocked as gold should, it would test right chemically, it would weigh *exactly* the right amount, and though I don't know this for sure, I think it would also pass an x-ray fluorescence scan, the 1/16" layer of pure gold being enough to stop the x-rays from reaching any tungsten. You'd pretty much have to drill it to find out it's fake.
Gray notes that it would cost about $50,000 to produce a fake gold bar in this way. But the bar, if accepted as real, would be worth around $400,000 -- which would be a pretty good return on your investment.
Posted By: Alex | Date: Sun Mar 16, 2008 | Permalink |
Total Comments: 10
Category: Business/Finance
Category: Business/Finance
Listed in chronological order. Newest comments at the end.
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It would be interesting to find out just how many of these gold-plated door stops Ethiopia has on hand... Maybe Madonna, Brad Pitt, or Angelina Jolie might do a benefit fundraiser for this bank to recover their losses... or perhaps George Bush will just jump in there and commit to some sort of bail-out program for the US taxpayers to foot the bill for...
Posted by Christopher in Warm, sunny Florida on Sun Mar 16, 2008 at 04:45 PM
I think this is what brought Bear Stearns stock down to $2/share this weekend.
Christopher said:
[P]erhaps George Bush will just jump in there and commit to some sort of bail-out program for the US taxpayers to foot the bill for."
Nah, that's reserved for big money crooks in THIS country.
Posted by Cranky Media Guy on Mon Mar 17, 2008 at 12:25 AM
Christopher said:
[P]erhaps George Bush will just jump in there and commit to some sort of bail-out program for the US taxpayers to foot the bill for."
Nah, that's reserved for big money crooks in THIS country.
Ha! Thanks for keeping your readers informed on the best way to profit from hoaxing!
Now if you had planned ahead just a bit, you would have included an ad for where to obtain tungsten cheaply...
http://www.joyfuldigesting.com/
Posted by Tee in New York on Mon Mar 17, 2008 at 06:03 AM
Now if you had planned ahead just a bit, you would have included an ad for where to obtain tungsten cheaply...
http://www.joyfuldigesting.com/
I thought Bear Stearns collapsed because its assets were insufficient to cover its liabilities in the face of an increasing number of 'cash calls' by some large investors. Basically, they had neglected to cover their ass when taking out several large investments. Which, when you think about it, is rather ironic for a company called 'Bear Stearns'.
Posted by David B. on Mon Mar 17, 2008 at 09:05 AM
Hi Alex,
It is the old(2007) story about an artist who tied up a dog and let it die without food and water at exhibition.
Is it true or not - so difficult to say.
I hope dog is safe.
Also interesting that nobody from Big news print this story, it is alive only in blogs.
To find out - google "Guillermo Vargas". There are pictures, story, and always link to petiotion.
Posted by ccc on Mon Mar 17, 2008 at 10:39 AM
It is the old(2007) story about an artist who tied up a dog and let it die without food and water at exhibition.
Is it true or not - so difficult to say.
I hope dog is safe.
Also interesting that nobody from Big news print this story, it is alive only in blogs.
To find out - google "Guillermo Vargas". There are pictures, story, and always link to petiotion.
I suppose another way to do it would be to alloy the gold with some cheaper metal. That way the bar would be uniform throughout, so having the bar drilled or scraped wouldn't ruin the whole plan. On the other hand, it would be more vulnerable to chemical tests, and you'd probably get a much smaller profit margin on your scam.
Posted by Accipiter in the Northern Hemisphere, unless They have lied. on Mon Mar 17, 2008 at 12:36 PM
David B. said:
"I thought Bear Stearns collapsed because its assets were insufficient to cover its liabilities in the face of an increasing number of 'cash calls' by some large investors. Basically, they had neglected to cover their ass when taking out several large investments."
Well, yeah, but I was making a JOKE! Sheesh.
Posted by Cranky Media Guy on Mon Mar 17, 2008 at 05:10 PM
"I thought Bear Stearns collapsed because its assets were insufficient to cover its liabilities in the face of an increasing number of 'cash calls' by some large investors. Basically, they had neglected to cover their ass when taking out several large investments."
Well, yeah, but I was making a JOKE! Sheesh.
Well don't keep us in suspense, post the punchline!
Posted by David B. on Tue Mar 18, 2008 at 06:03 AM
It's just occurred to me that the plating scam could run into problems if the speed of sound in tungsten is different to the speed of sound in gold. If it is, a cheap ultrasound scanner, such as those used in hospitals would be able to quickly and non-destructively test a suspect bar.
Posted by cthelmax on Fri May 16, 2008 at 12:14 AM
Yes, the speed of sound in tungsten is double that in gold. Therefore there should be multiple test to reveal fakes. One test could simply be to knock on a freely hanging bar and listen to the response. The lowest frequencys sent out in a pure gold bar would be lower than that in a mixed tungsten/gold bar.
Posted by Jonas on Mon Sep 22, 2008 at 01:37 PM
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