this is a strange one indeed.... http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-...ar-certified-royal-canadian-mint-exposed-fake "According to CBC, the Royal Canadian Mint is investigating how a sealed, "pure gold" wafer with proper mint stampings has emerged as a fake. According to the Canadian press, the one-ounce gold piece, which was supposed to be 99.99% pure, was purchased by an Ottawa jeweller on Oct. 18 at a Royal Bank of Canada branch. The problem emerged when tests of the bar showed it may contain no gold at all. And, when neither the mint nor RBC would take the bar back, jeweler Samuel Tang contacted CBC news."
Hopefully doesn't turn into a widespread issue, although personally have never liked or owned any certi-bars.
It will be interesting to see how This unfolds and whether other gold customers of that branch will have their bars tested to confirm. Could even be a teller swapping EBay fakes under the counter.
I would have assumed all large companies would record/link serial numbers to an invoice to prevent someone doing the dodgy and returning a fake.
RCM don’t have a bar code, but does have a serial number on the bullion. But if the dodgy jeweller rolled it, it might not be legible
It's got to be that, surely. Or someone else in the handling chain. No way it left the factory like that.
Wasn’t a RCM worker recently caught stealing gold by smuggling it out of the Mint stashed in his rectum? Could it be plausible that he brought fake bars into the Mint, then introduced them into the production line, and ultimately into genuine packaging, to cover the amount of gold he was stealing? I wonder if more will surface?
RCM is quoted as stat8ng that it was clearly fake. The question is, can it be ascertained it is fake by package or only after testing the metal.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/fake-gold-not-ours-mint-says-1.4380705 Fake gold not ours, mint says
When I see newbie PM folks buying sealed gold bars at my local shops I always wonder who gave them bad advice on what to buy. It may be different in other places, but here you can get gov made gold coins that are easy-peazy to verify, for only a couple bucks more than some sealed bar that you can't verify without tearing it out or needing some special device to check it. If a person was really a cheapskate, they can get lightly scratched maples (or good condition older .999 maples) and such for cheaper than new sealed bars. But at least you would know it is real gold.