GERMAN GOLD FOUNDRY APPARENTLY DISCOVERED A TUNGSTEN FILLED GOLD BAR THAT WAS DUE FOR MELT
March 2nd, 2010Why not name the bank that it came from?
The English translation on the ProSieben video is very rough accurate. Cryptogon has many readers in Germany. I think we would all appreciate a high confidence German to English translation of what is being said in the video.
Note that this is not a London Good Delivery bar. It’s too small. The minimum weight of a London Good Delivery gold bar is, “350 troy ounces (approximately 10.9 kilograms).” The tungsten/gold bar shown in the video is 500 grams.
Update: Confirmation of Statements Made in Video
Felix, of fefe.de, sent the following:
The translation in the video is accurate, but it’s only the white subtitles, the yellow ones are apparently from the site who uploaded the video.
There is not much content there. It is a fluff piece about the company that deals with the gold and the CEO (?) shares this anecdote about how one bank bought this gold bar that was filled with tungsten and one of his guys detected it on a hunch (?!?). They verified by cutting it open.
You’d think that they have more sophisticated measuring equipment than hunches of their workers.
They don’t mention when this bar was found, could have been a long time ago.
—End Update—
Via: ZeroHedge:
German TV station ProSieben finds what appears to be some evocative proof of gold counterfeiting, in the form of tungsten gold substitutes coming to the W.C.Heraeus foundry, which is the world’s largest privately-owned precious metals refiner and fabricator, located in Hanau, Germany. The foundry has isolated at least one 500-gram tungsten bar due for melting, originating from a (so far) unnamed bank, which as the head of the foundry stated made the unpleasant discovery that “not all the glitters is gold.”
Research Credit: uranian
This story hearkens back to the London Good Delivery stories from November. I happen to accept that the London Good Delivery bars were legit, with no serious problems but I can see how a normal bank could get taken by a counterfeit.
It will be interesting to see how frequently this occurs and where.
It’s just wild speculation on my part, but I’m guessing there’s quite a bit of counterfeiting going on with small coins INSIDE China right now.
On a related note, I listened to some podcast today which indicated that the Gold which was recently sold to India might have been larded with some tungsten… If it’s true, I can’t imagine that’ll last too long once word get out.
Any any case, (to use a term from IT marketing) all this FUD is certainly having some sort of impact on either demand for gold or on scheduled delivery of gold.
Cui Bono?
And just as importantly, “How can YOU benefit?”
I know a lot of people were sceptical to Rob Kirby/Jim Willie’s thoughts on this, and without knowing how often goods bars are assayed, it’s hard to know whether this will be found in these, too. I’d be very unsurprised, anyway.
As to impact on the gold price, if this does gain legs, I’d guess initially prices of smaller gold bars will drop on a fear premium, then gold generally will rise as people realise that this means that there’s even less gold than officially reported. I can’t imagine the counterfitting with tungsten will have reached coins, as it’s a difficult metal to work with (one of the highest melting points of any metal), so I can only think it is considered worthwhile for decent sized chunks of gold, so it might add a premium for coins over bars. If it turns out that this is a common problem with bars all over the place (I think it was Ethiopia that discovered they had steel filled bars not too long ago), I imagine it’ll be another step towards the destruction of the financial system wholesale, as every form of trust is destroyed in financial assets.
History rhymes:
Austrians Seize False Gold Tied to London Bullion Theft
Published: December 22, 1983
The Austrian police announced the arrest today of 5 men and the discovery of 10 counterfeit gold bars stamped with numbers and refiner’s name to match 6,000 real bars stolen in Britain last month.
The police said the five arrested in Vienna on Tuesday night apparently planned to sell the counterfeit gold, passing it off as part of the haul of three tons of bullion stolen by masked gunmen from a warehouse near London’s Heathrow Airport on Nov. 26.
A police spokesman said the police did not know how the men had discovered the numbers stamped on the stolen bars.
The police at first suspected the counterfeit bars were part of the Heathrow booty, but the spokesman said tests showed the bars were made of tungsten and only coated with gold.
The fake bars were seized in a police raid on a hotel where the five men – four Italians and an Austrian – were meeting.
http://www.nytimes.com/1983/12/22/world/austrians-seize-false-gold-tied-to-london-bullion-theft.html
You know what was really interesting about this story to me? There’s not real way to know if a bar is good or not. They rely on a fella who’s tested gold for 3 decades to decide if he “like it”.
Obviously there are a number of suggestive, or red-flag, tests, but basically he just goes with his gut instinct.
…”I don’t like it.”
“I asked him why, is everything ok?”
“I don’t like it.”
That’s why there’s so much trust placed in the good-delivery system. Which also tells me there’s a rock-solid opportunity for the right people to cheat that system.