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.
At first, the bank refused to take it back. RBC ultimately thought better of that position, and decided they had an obligation to pick up the bar and then returned it to the mint for testing, refunding Tang the $1,680 purchase price.
If there is one fake bar, there are likely many more. William Rentz, a professor at the University of Ottawa's Telfer School of Management and an expert on investments and equity, says the discovery is "troubling."
"A currency counterfeiter doesn't make just one fake $50 bill," he said. "They make a whole lot of them. So I would suspect this might just be the tip of the iceberg."
That's especially true if you buy the gold at the bank itself! Couldn't be a much better spot to buy gold than that, you would think.
Better stick with US eagles for now.
A few years ago I was checking out gold coins on Ebay. I found a set of Chinese gold coins, a "mint set" of gold coins. There were 5 coins ranging from about 1/10oz up to 1oz; gold was selling for around $900/oz at the time, so I expected this set to sell for over $1500.
ReplyDeleteJust for curiosity, and fully expecting to have my small bid immediately out-bid, I put in a bid of $15. That way, I'd keep getting notifications of what the bidding got up to.
Knock me over with a feather, mine was the winning bid! In due course I got the set- impressively packaged in a well-made wooden display case, lined with velvet, and a pile of documents with colorful seals to assert their authenticity!
The coins themselves were each in a plastic capsule, and looked magnificent!
They were, of course, counterfeit. Sigh.
I contacted Ebay, told them that this was fraudulent, and expected a big fight; but I got an immediate refund and didn't even have to return the merchandise (which usually has to be done for a refund.)
The case is in front of me as I type this; it still looks magnificent, it's just too bad it isn't real!
This case of the gold from the bank is, I fear, merely the tip of a very large iceberg. Counterfeiting's just too profitable, and too easy these days.