Right, and presumably that is between private sellers, rathe than dealers, given that "NO dealer will pay you a premium on the Pamps"? Sorry, wanted to add that in to the earlier post, but I haven't worked out how to edit yet!
Can't think of one who will pay premium ,but they will sell them at a premium ,if you want a premium on Pamps ,try ebay
OK. So just as long as I don't find it difficult to sell to dealers because they prefer to buy PAMP/cert/mint, as they can make more money when they sell on, it all sounds OK.
Those 1oz blobs / ingots are a basic unit of 1oz gold ,all the dealers know each others markings There are other smaller dealers with they're own markings & they all sell
Thankyou for your time and patience, Spannermonkey. Given a couple of blokes with 4000+ posts have told me not to worry, maybe that's what I should do! A thought to add is that I am not stacking to sell on in six months, I only bought gold as a hedge against hyper-inflation and currency collapse. If that happens, demand for gold from both dealers and buyers shouldn't be too fussy about cast or mint, or ABC versus PAMP. They'll just want some gold.
Maybe get some other branded blobs so you get to know other makers brands Google & ebay are your friend
I think I'll stick with my curent collection of PAMP ounces and ABC blobs. I actually like the blobs, by the way. You can touch 'em, and feel the weight better in your hand. When I got the PAMP certicards, my first thought was, "How do you get them assayed if they're sealed in plastic?" (There's a definite worry-wart streak here, isn't there?). BTW, what's the deal with the ceert numbers? Can you ring up PAMP and ask if the number on your card is legit, or what?
NO you can't ring them up & ask , You want to get them assayed :lol: DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT You would have to melt them down & get a lab result from a refinery Find a dealer with a XRF machine
So if there's no registry wih dates of production to compare your certicard to, what's the point of the certificate number?
Some people have worked roughly what numbers are what dates ,I don't bother Never seen fake certicards But as soon as I say that ,somebody will point one out
Well, I suppose the certicard packaging makes forging just that little bit harder - as does the engraving on the ingot. But I don't see the point fo cerificate numbers without a registry you can check up on at Head Office. Anti-forgery devices like the windows and watermarks on fifty dollar notes, yeah, but a cert number you can't check up on????
I was just as surprised when I first found out - and it still seems ridiculous. It's made me rate bullion coins a little higher with respect to being readily verifiable. Seems like the old hands on here don't care though - gold is gold...
Togetherwe: They put an ingot in a plastic casing, making it more difficult to test for authenticity, and ensuring that removal of the plastic to test the gold is self-defeating, as potental buyers will think a wrapper-less/tampered-with ingot is a fake. In return, you get a certificate number that can't be verified. Madness
Anyway, thanks A LOT to those who replied. I'll sleep on what I have read today. I'll check back tomorrow to see if anyone else has added anything, but again, thanks.
Apparently you can test with an XRF machine though the plastic, but yes, forget specific gravity tests. Perhaps not quite madness... a successful marketing gimmick to entice nervous newbs like ourselves? I suppose eventually we'll become frustrated with awkward little plastic wrappers and gravitate towards greater fondle-factor.
Certicard serial numbers are for uniquely identifying bars - not registering them. Think about SMSF audits, or reporting stolen goods. Not sure how being able to "verify" a six digit number is an anti-fraud measure - forgers would just use one or more valid serial numbers! Certicard packaging for either PAMP or Perth Mint has never being counterfeited to industry knowledge.
Yes, uniquely identifying bars is a more modest purpose... At first glance the more inexperienced among us might be forgiven for thinking that more is implied though. Take what I assume is a typical excerpt from the description of a Pamp bar: Perhaps as it must be, the onus is still on us to determine authenticity in case someone ever did start copying certi-pamp packages, assayer's signature, serial number and all. If a bar's entire ownership history could be retrieved from the mint using something similar to a serial number I think it'd help in preventing fraud. But I guess such a system doesn't exist, and certainly wouldn't be to everyone's liking.
I would suggest that goes against 99% of peoples' liking. Basically it would be a "gold registry". More useful might be a stolen/fraud gold registry - a lookup database to see if a particular serial number has been flagged as stolen, or in the event that it occurs, identified as a serial number used on a counterfeit card (not that any are known to exist).
