To answer both ur questions..... yes almost all my jewellery scrap i buy from indians is hallmarked with the 22ct stamp plus any factory stamp... but like i said on my xrf it has showed many times its lower than the current hallmark... this is not unusual as it happens from jewellery all over the world but i find most of the indian 22ct is out. Just personal experience speaking here (i have been buying for many yrs and this happens every week!) and alot of times i feel sry for the poor customer as they expected a little more for their scrap....
This is why I buy local only as a general rule - or well established producers of metal. Perth Mint, PAMP Suisse, ASEs, Maples etc I have always wanted at least one Panda in my stack for the collectable novelty of it, but with the reputation of Chinese precious metals turning to mud in the established market I am not sure I'd want to take the risk unless it was slabbed, with assay markings and from a reputable dealer. In that respect, a slabbed Panda proof might be the best option to get a taste of it. But for general stacking purposes, I generally avoid china and india as purchase options. What strikes me as odd is that the relevent authorities are not stamping down hard to cut this out. You'd think for the big time counterfitters, a death penalty in those countries would be standard to scare off the crims? Look at what you'll get slapped with if you have a kilogram of cocaine on your possession in China. What will happen if you have a fake 1kg gold bar I wonder?
Is that a rumour or is it actually confirmed? I find it hard to believe that an element can be perfectly faked with an alloy of other elements.
i'd really like one of those 'boat' gold items that sell in asia. But confidence in what i was purchasing would prevent me from getting one.
now we know where those bars from .... hahaha "In October of 2009 the Chinese received a shipment of gold bars. Gold is regularly exchanges between countries to pay debts and to settle the so-called balance of trade. Most gold is exchanged and stored in vaults under the supervision of a special organization based in London, the London Bullion Market Association (or LBMA). When the shipment was received, the Chinese government asked that special tests be performed to guarantee the purity and weight of the gold bars. In this test, four small holed are drilled into the gold bars and the metal is then analyzed. Officials were shocked to learn that the bars were fake. They contained cores of tungsten with only a outer coating of real gold. What's more, these gold bars, containing serial numbers for tracking, originated in the US and had been stored in Fort Knox for years. There were reportedly between 5,600 to 5,700 bars, weighing 400 oz. each, in the shipment!"
This story has been doing the rounds for quite sometime i think it was first reported on CNN about a year ago. I would say theres a small risk when buying gold in mainland China but when buying in Hong Kong thats a whole different ball game. I believe though as long as you purchase from a reputable dealer in Hong Kong you should have no issues as nobody wants this kind of reputation for selling fake gold. But like the above posters have said if you stick to the proper brands then you should be ok, the reported fake bars on CNN were some Chinese refiner.
