FAKE gold...

Gold is a kind of precious metal. Since there were alchemy in human history, gold has become collectibles of the rich and royal families because of its beautiful golden color and its resistance to time, climate and rust. It’s a symbol of wealth and an indispensable component of luxurious jewelry. Most of the luxurious watch and jewelries are made with lots of gold in order to show their value. Nowadays, gold price is about one thousand and seven hundred U.S. dollar per troy ounce (equivalent to about thirteen thousand Hong Kong dollars) A ten ounce gold bar costs over one hundred and thirty thousand Hong Kong dollars.

As the gold price rise steadily in the last decade, illegal merchants starts to manufacture counterfeit gold bars and jewelries filled with other metals. Since 2009, news reported that people filled iridium or tungsten which with similar density of gold into gold jewelries or even gold bars and then sold them in the markets. The fake gold is made so real that it’s not easy to determine if it’s real even using fire assay method.

In March of 2012, someone shared his finding on internet that plenty of counterfeit gold bars of certain well-known brands turned up in the market.  Even the gold bars stored in the banks as financial reserve were found “fake”. They were tungsten bars coated with gold. And people cannot determine its authenticity with various commonly ways of testing. Even using X-rays test, they’re checked as 99.98% real. Only when it’s cut, the tungsten bars was shown. Counterfeit bars contain only 25% of real gold.

Famous financial website such as Forbes, Business Insider and the well-known press “Reuters” reported the findings of fake gold bars which shocked the societies.

Forbes
http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2012/03/26/the-drilled-gold-bars-filled-with-tungsten/

Business Insider
http://www.businessinsider.com/tungsten-filled-gold-bars-found-in-new-york-2012-9

Reuters
http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2012/03/25/the-problem-of-fake-gold-bars/

Silver Doctor
http://www.silverdoctors.com/tungsten-filled-10oz-pamp-suisse-gold-bar-discovered-in-manhattan/#more......

In October of 2012, news about fake gold bars turned up in Manhattan of New York was reported in the United States. The counterfeit bars were again 75% tungsten bars coated by 25% gold. It said the source of these fake gold bars is a criminal Chinese gang that produced them during the Clinton years.

Fake Gold in Manhattan
Gold-Coated Tungsten Bars Still Showing Up
http://www.wealthdaily.com/articles/fake-gold-in-manhattan/3680

Moreover, IMF claimed its gold reserve was three thousands two hundreds and seventeen tonnes in 2009. It sold 403 tonnes of gold in the third quarter of 2009 included two hundred tonnes sold to India.

http://cosmos-justice.blogspot.hk/2010/01/imf-sold-gold-plated-tungsten-bars-to.html

However, in December of 2009, there’s a news reported that the two hundred tonnes of gold bars sold to Indian Government by IMF which cost over eleven billion U.S. dollars were gold plated tungsten bars consisted of only 25% gold.

U.S. Treasury claimed to have stored 8200 tonnes of gold bars in the gold reserves located in Fort Knox. However, people doubt if the gold are still there since it hasn’t opened for audit by any officials, congressmen or Americans for almost forty years.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/burns-haberman/2011/12/paul-wants-to-check-fort-knox-for-gold-109085.h......

In December of 2011, House representative Ron Paul requested to audit the gold in Fort Knox to check if the 8200 tonnes of gold includes the gold of Americans confiscated by the U.S. government in the thirties and other reserves has gone. However, he was rejected.

In 2012, a television program questioned about if Fort Knox is empty in an interview but being declined by the relevant department.