Scottsdale, Sunshine, PAMP and the Royal Canadian Mint have all added anti-counterfeiting measures to products this year.
XRF is basically X rays, heavy particles stream, goes through everything, the visible light spectrum (plastic package) is unrelated to this.
X ray absorption and thus penetration depth is a function of density, and since plastics aren't dense, it won't hide much. Actually plastics need additive materials in order to be 'visible' for x rays. The penetration depth is also a function of the power of the transmitter, so metal analysis just requires more power than plastic.
How about hallmarked Stirling items? I don't see them going to the effort of faking old crafted pieces and hall marks? Would surely be more effort than easy bars and coins they can mass produce once they have the set up right? Buy cheap and don't expect a premium? Back In the days of Stirling coins people could keep their life savings in silver as functional products. In my opinion and were going to get paranoid about forgery this might be a smarter direction than paying premiums as insurance when the insurance could be easier to fake than the metal. This is really interesting for those who missed it earlier. Looks at the times where families kept their life savings in the kitchen. http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YJuIypxKVN8
Buy 1oz coins if you're really that worried then... Certificates and cert cards are forged easily enough, you're only safe bet is buying Government issued PMs. At the end of the day i'm 100% sure everything I own is genuine, if you have doubts you're most likely buying the wrong stuff anyway (unless you collect 10oz gold pamps, then I just feel sorry for you).
I just have a feeling that the round 50's will do well in Australia when the price goes past $100 There was a coin dealer that set up a stand for a weekend at my local shopping center just outside the Kmart entrance a couple years ago when Silver was going crazy. I just had a look over his stuff but while I was there 3 different elderly people had come past while I was there and asked the guy if he had any round 50's and he said "no but I can get them" and then showed them his commemorative 50's he did have and they said "but there is no Silver in them?" We are at a time now where pensioners are holding a lot of cash and are worried about the falling interest rates and rising prices and the only thing they still recognise as silver is the round 50's. I think these will do quite well.
Pre dec are great options if your worried about forgery. 1966 50centers would be tough to fake and are of a small silver content taking away a bigger reward. Also legal tender so our gov would go down hard on it.
As spanner said, if I was selling bars I would sell to a local bullion dealer, and they all have XRF machines, so certification means nothing For those sort of premiums I'd rather buy 10oz and kilo Perth Mint lunar coins Harder to forge, legal tender coins and with some potential of future numi premium
May depend on thickness of the plastic? XRF is a good thing I reckon, but is not perfect. Would be perfect if it could penetrate deeper into items being tested.
XRF does go through the PAMP certicards fine, I can vouch for the that. However XRF will get fooled by very thick plating, it must be quite thick though. XRF is averaging the composition of the surface layer of the metal and the metal only, hence why it can go through the plastic okay. So a fake bar in a fake certicard could fool an XRF. New certicards are now starting to come out with either RFID in the packaging or with laser engraved QR codes on the metal it's self. The companies doing the RFID packets are giving the dealers a reader that you can scan the packets with. The ones with the QR codes you can scan yourself with a smartphone. Both systems confirm the serial number back to the manufacturer.
+ 1, I did once that's right, when you come to sell to dealer, they don't care is certed or not, they will open it cut and tested.
I rarely sell back to dealers. I find I can get a much better price selling privately (and the buyer can get a cheaper price than buying from a dealer). Thus having bullion less likely to be forged helps the transaction to go through with max value to both parties.
I think there will come a time when we will have to sell to a dealer if we want to move our metal. What will happen when the metals go into a mania blow off and all the contacts we have made as well as all the SS members want to sell? Because of the forgeries that will be in the market buy that time, I think anyone with half a brain will only buy from reputable dealers. So unless dealers change their buying practices and give you back a premium for a premium product, is it really worth having?
Anyone buying in the mania blow off parabolic phase won't have half a brain But seriously... if they are rushing in then... they will buy from anyone (and at any premium)... I know... I saw it on the run to $50 and that wasn't even close to the mania we'll see one day.
