I should have bought kangaroos or lunars instead of certicards. But it was my first purchase back then and I knew very little about gold at that time... Maybe I should sell them.
Weight on these are spot on, it's a brass alloy which has a lower density but are made slightly thicker and recessed into the certicard so you don't notice the difference at first glance. You can just see a different if you compare them side by side, you can use XRF if you can get access to one as the gold plating is quite thin and you will test mostly copper. Two other tell tails not mentioned by The Perth Mint is that the swan is noticeable smaller on the fake and the distance of the wording down the side is almost twice the distance from the edge. Fakes are on aliexpress for about US$8- ea now and getting shipped out all over the world at a fast pace. This is why I never liked minted gold bars, nor do I like certicards. PAMP now use micro-profiling on their bars called VERISCAN which has a QR code on the card to match the data-base at PAMP in Geneva Switzerland. You can theoretically scan the bar with a home flatbed scanner to match the original micro profile as it was produced by PAMP matching the QR code on the pack. This is good for now but doesn't help any PAMP owners of older bars nor what ever new fake minted bars come out next. However another point to consider is all of China's Gold holdings are in 1Kg PAMP Gold Bars with the Shanghai exchange urging it's customer such as Saudi Arabia to covert all Gold to 1Kg PAMP Gold Bars and move away form the 400oz London bars. There is also a rumor that the Chinese Government have just banned the manufacture and sale or fake PAMP products in China, perhaps at the request made by PAMP or perhaps in preparation for a big Government Gold unveiling of Chinese holdings. I can't see many fake PAMP now selling out from China so this may be true. I would not worry if you hold minted bars as you can always sell to dealer or melt down first back to cast bars but you may loose your premium in the end if no one trusts the branding due to fakes. My personal option is to always stick to cast bars, cast bars are so rarely faked compared to minted bars and are way cooler to stack and hold.
Was it you i saw on TM asking about the post florins? $5 each is a bit rich i feel, but thinking about it have you seen what they sell for in smaller lots? I think ill end up grabbing them even though they are over priced (at the moment)
Go to a $2 shop and they have kids writing pads that they call (i think) "magic pads" The pen that you use to write in them is UV sensitive and invisible and the top of the pen has a wee UV light that you shine on your pad to reveal the hidden messages you write. Does that make sense? But for $2 its a bargain. I use 1 for my currency checks.
Does this one look fake? http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/10-gram-...683860?hash=item3f67e02a94:g:gxkAAOSwqfNXnY8s
On that ebay listing, on the back of the bar, there is no little kangaroos. Maybe they did something to hide them. Here's another link: http://www.perthmintbullion.com/th/mobile/blog/15-07-07/Another_Fake_Minted_Bar_To_Beware.aspx This 1oz gold bar has the arch writing, and the guy blacked out the serial numbers. Oh, and it's 1250$ for 1 oz: http://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/cooma/miscellaneous-goods/1oz-gold-bar/1119654073
That one is bad. The 10g may be real, I was put of by the lack of of raised rim on the reverse of the bar. Maybe bad photo.
would a search on ebay for "invisible ink" do the shot? edit: a search for UV flashlight brings up many cheap options. Should be a bit of fun.
I can't wait for my Sigma PM analyzer to arrive. I buy lots of second hand silver and all these fakes are starting to worry me.
Here's 10g of gold with a reserve of 99$, less than 24h left, and only 1 bid http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Pamp-Sui...838844?hash=item1eb67067fc:g:bRUAAOSwYSlXh1si and if you look at his feedback you will see he sold another 10g bar for 500 when spot is roughly 562$.... hmmm... suspicious much.
You'll notice that the seller uses the same photos with the same serial number, either they're all copies with the same serial number or he's too lazy to show what your really getting for $500, very misleading, he's sold at least 10 at around $500, so a loss of at least $600 & still happy to sell??? many sellers on ebay have gotten away with selling dodgy certicards at the start until 1 or 2 buyers get suspicious & find out they're fakes & then you'll see all the negative feedback pile up, i noticed that on 3 or 4 ebay sellers
