[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=http://youtu.be/AAHEX8YIByM[/youtube] I came across a fake Northwest Territorial bar and posted a small video warning people. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AAHEX8YIByM
That is what I am starting to hear. They are easy to catch though, a rare earth magnet slides off of them like a piece of lead.
NWT's own site have something on it- https://bullion.nwtmint.com/silver/silver_fake-vs-authentic-bars.php That's a bit of a joke...
Yep. If you're going to deal in buying back retail precious metals, an XRF is a must. Even Peter Strich's coin shop in Melbourne has one. Heard a horror story from a UK refiner that had a scrap buyer sell them about 20 Sydney Mint sovereigns from the 1850/60s that all had a nice big permanent acid testing stain on what were otherwise some seriously collectible coins.
XRF is quite some money. Or seen from the perspective of its goal: it's like over 1000 ounce fake silver. Big dealers, big amounts silver bought back, reputation to hold, yes. For a stacker, how handy it may be, it's abit like shooting a duck with an $1K shell. Maybe they will become more affordable in a future. They already became, considering their prices a decade ago.
This is Hot News Has anyone heard of Fakie infiltrated into manufacturers and into the system already? No BS. I hope the dealers will starts scanning those bars where they get them from. Sorry cannot exposed where I heard this from.
Hint: Dealers ordered from manufacturers where their first contamination occurred from there. Therefore have gone into ours source chains. That is a worried!!! Like I said cannot name any dealers here. Hopefully we can filters this out before it goes any further.. Mainly bars from US buys back.
I've had this happen, and know of another Australian dealer it happened to. Bulk "secondary market" lots bought in from the US, I got two 100 mills bars out of one lot, another dealer had about 30 out of 500oz. How do we know? We test, so it DOESN'T reach the customer. Good dealers DO test buybacks, even when sourced in bulk from other dealers, which is how the two examples above came to light. Both instances involved different suppliers that are "household names" in the industry. Basically screw ups within their system that were caught here, and some very red faces.
One of the reasons I stick with Goldstackers is their testing procedures of any secondhand items they buy and sell. Glad you bought the xrf instead of upgrading your car gp.
Theres no mention of the fakes coming from manufacturers, they were secondhand buybacks from a supplier.
Correct - the one I'm sure Chip is referring to was also second hand buybacks supplied by a US wholesaler. They were not "new" bars.
Check out the info below, posted today in the silver coins forum by TomD. I don't think he will mind me sharing this important info. Nothing anyone here is representing, just a heads up on what could be a great tool for the common stacker, I would want to see some more tests, might be more on line, I did not search. Just saw this posted on another bullion centered board but I think it important enough to spread around with the river of fakes threatening to become a flood. This machine at around US $700 right now is a little pricey but not nearly as pricey as the X-ray machines. And the price will come down as (irony of ironies) the Chinese reverse engineer it and flood the market with cheap, but functional, copies. http://youtu.be/v_6XbbuDc9U Last edited by TomD (Today 07:17:48)
