More fake gold bars sold in New York

Ten more fake gold bars (10 oz. each) have been discovered in New York. They are gold plated tungsten. They get away with it because tungsten is the same weight as gold, so the bars measure the same size and weight. However, tungsten is only worth a dollar an ounce, whereas gold is $1774 an ounce (as of last Friday).

I suggest buying silver, preferably in coins or one ounce "rounds." No one has bothered to counterfeit silver yet, as far as anyone knows. To counterfeit a one ounce round or coin would not be profitable. And besides, silver is in short supply and very hard to get. I have a friend who has ordered silver, and has had to wait for a few months to get it. He recently got another notice that he will have to wait another 30 days to receive it--either because supplies are extremely tight (as they claim) or because they don't want to send him $35 silver when he purchased it for $27. (They probably will lose money, because they sold silver they did not have in stock and have to purchase it now on the open market.)

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/fake_gold_hits_nyc_ECXVP5WQOvYwMVTi8CoHRL

The Post has learned as many as 10 fake gold bars — made up mostly of relatively worthless tungsten — were sold recently to unsuspecting dealers in Manhattan’s Midtown Diamond District....

The 10-oz. gold bars are hugely popular with Main Street investors, and it is not known how many of the fake gold bars were sold to dealers — or if any fake bars were purchased by the public....

“It has the entire street on edge,” said Ibrahim Fadl, 62, who has been the owner of Express Metal Refining, a Midtown gold-refinery business, for the last 11 years. “I and the others on the street work off of trust; now that trust is strained.”