South African Reserved Bank admits to underweight Krugerrands in 2011 http://www.silverdoctors.com/s-a-re...-krugerrands-were-produced-in-2011/#more-3571
Luckily not the generic bullion version. Source: http://www.iol.co.za/business/business-news/some-krugerrands-underweight-1.1276088
They allowed underweight coins to be pumped out for two straight months? They only check the weight of their coins once every two months, what the hell? ... That's literally out of control.
if there are just a few proof coins, these will be highly valued collector items. just like error coins
Press release from the South African Reserve Bank: http://www.resbank.co.za/Publicatio...22e-7125-4e55-bb65-56fd3333371e&sarbitem=5019
Given the rigorous tests and checkfs that are supposed to be in place, its more than a little bit difficult to accept that went undetected for two months. A suspicious person might even come to the conclusion that someone or group might want to shake the confidence of pm stackers, and push them into " safe, secure assets", like, say shares. ( sarcasm off).
Welcome to the New South Africa!!! Another example of a long term, socialist regime ruining a once prosperous economy and appointing its corrupt cronies to every possible public service position. Note on the bottom of the press release it also mentions another organised theft at the mint by employees. I do wonder exactly by how much the coins were underweight. I pity the overseas collectors that purchased these and now have the headache of trying to replace them.
I think its more likely that a group of employees acted together possibly with the full knowledge of someone higher up in management. An "inside" job.
Krugers are 22k gold so they can be underweight in their gold content without being underweight on the scales. If someone were to change the alloy from 91.6% gold to, say 91.1%, they'd pick up a little over $8/oz coin (@USD1660/oz). There are ~4000oz worth of proof Krugers issued each year so if you were able to tamper with all of them, you'd be up by about $32,000. That's assuming you watered down the alloy by such a large amount on all the coins. If you were a lowly SA Mint employee, just taking home an extra USD$100/week would be a huge score.
Yeah, I didn't see anywhere whether the gross weight was wrong, or the gold content. As Big A.D. pointed out, if it was debasement, then it's the actual gold content that was short. Bit like buying 22k jewellery and only receiving 21k.
Jewellery marked 22K don't have to be exactly 22K. They can vary 0.5K between 21.5-22.5. For this reason I believe most 22K jewellery are in fact 21.5K especially form Asia and from the other developing world. Same story with the 18 or 14K Coins are probably more strict on specification.
Surely they'd have to weigh the gold before they put the gold in. It's out of control all the same as a 999 weighing less than an ounce, its the same outrageousness.
Well, yeah. So what if you're the guy at the mint who's job it is to weigh the gold and you're a bit short of cash?
It's a socialist banana republic where criminals reign supreme with indemnity. Nothing more, nothing less...
no - AUSTRALIA .... of course South Africa! Actually I have infinitely more of an idea what I'm talking about than you could ever wrap that little commie brain of yours around mate :lol:
They were the proof coins only - not the bullion coins. I imagine the proofs were all encased in airtites with certificates and such. Who verifies proof coins (sold directly from the Mint I'm guessing)?
Funny how little will dispute this, yet will burn you at the stake if ever mentioning Perth Mint (or other mints) possibly doing the same? No offense PM; I'm just the devil's advocate. Take it all for a grain of salt and hope for the best. Once news is out fakees are circulating then cut your losses. Everybody (incl. fkn companies) are all susceptible to temptations. Never rule out a white man or white company deceiving you, oh wait, we white people are the worse in history.
