- With the spike in Precious Metal prices over the last 4 or 5 years there has been an increase in the amount of fake Bullion Investment Products introduced to the market. Additionally there are sophisticated ways being used to take legitimate Bullion products and corruptly alter them to remove the precious metals and replace them with other less expensive base metal.
- Below you will find pictures or the most recent Bullion and fake Jewelry frauds that we have seen in the market. Afterwords we will suggest the one and only surefire way that you can protect yourself from making costly mistakes purchasing defrauded Bullion and jewelry products.
Lead Filled 100 oz. Engelhard Silver Bars
Fake: 1 oz. “Silver” Rounds
The coin does not say: .999 Silver, or 1 ounce anywhere. It does say “Copy”. It looks and has the same feel of a silver round, with a proof-like finish, and is very similar to coins mass produced with the Buffalo and Indian. This weighs light anyway at 17 pennyweights.
No Hallmark Silver Bar marked 999+
No Hallmark Silver Bar Is Actually Lead
Syracuse Smelting Silver Bar? No Metal Mark
Syracuse Smelting Silver Bar Is Actually Lead
Silver Plated Ingots
With marks that state 15 Grains Silver
Silver Plated Panda’s
Gold Plated Brass US American Eagle
Bottom of “tails” side says “COPY”
Gold Plated Brass US American Eagle
Recently found fake weigh’s 0.67 tr.oz.
One Pound – Silver Plated Round
No Markings saying Silver anywhere
Silver Plated Buffalo Proof w/ CerLficate
Certificate States 100 Mil .999 Pure – Silver Clad Base Weight 1.00 oz avdp.
Silver Plated Pan American Silver Corp 1 tr.oz. Bar
1 tr.oz Canadian Fake Gold Bar
Note that “mills” is a measurement of plating thickness, and not weight!
Tungsten Filled 10 tr.oz. Credit Suisse Gold Bars:
First reported as a “slew” of them located in the NY Jewelry District in
September of 2012 (Both metals share a density of 19.3 grams/cc3)
Tungsten Filled Kilo Gold Bar
First turned up in the UK during March of 2012
UBS 18K 100 Gram White Gold Bar – ???
1 tr.oz. Platinum Credit Suisse Bar
1 tr.oz. PlaLnum Credit Suisse Bar
Is Actually Plated Copper
Fake 18K White Rolex Link Necklace
18K White Jewelers Plate Stock
Actually Stainless Steel Plate – Will hold up to Acid Test as high karat
Other Fake 18K White Gold Chains
Other Fake 18K White Gold Chains
(This report came out of Manhattan, NY area – clasp stamped 750)
Fake 18K White Serpentine Chain
Stainless Steel “Tiffany” Bracelet w/ Charm
Stamped “925”
Omega Link Chain w/Base Metal Insert
Plated Holy Father/Virgin Mary Pendants
Fake Ring made from Base Metal and Karat Gold
(our report came out of Central Valley California area)
Gold & Steel Bracelet – Yields 3-5% AU Content
(White metal will stone test as higher karat, but is actually Carbon Steel)
Newly Manufactured Gold Plated Tungsten Coins,Paperweights,etc.
Newely Manufactured Gold Plated Tungsten Jewelry, Nuggecs,etc.
White Metal Dentures (Partials) are not Precious Metal
However they will hold up to acid testing as High Karat material because Nitric Acid
will not react on most Stainless Steel materials
- What you’ve seen above is just a small sampling of the
various ways unscrupulous people are trying to defraud the
unprepared Pawnbroker, Jeweler or scrap gold buyer. The
best way for you to avoid geqng caught by this scam is to
quote your purchase price with the idea that you will be
scrapping it (and not trying to resell it).
- Then you should get permission from the customer to file
or grind into the piece or even cut the piece in half to
properly verifify it’s composiLon. Even if it’s going to be a
pawn, and not a sale. If you get this far then most likely
you will have a legiLmate piece. However you should sLll
use your test acids on the newly exposed area’s for final
verificaLon. Just because a piece comes in with a
CerLficate does not guarantee the legiLmancy of the item.