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[–] 20364838? 0 points 4 points (+4|-0) ago 

Reuters reports that most of counterfeit bars appear to be made in China? Yep, nothing but cheap crappy counterfeits come from there.

The gold is real, and very high purity, with only the markings faked? Good way to bypass little things like sanctions, trade restrictions and to launder money undetected.

Interesting they are made of real gold because when I first read the headline I thought they were just gold plated fakes.

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[–] 20365958? 0 points 3 points (+3|-0) ago 

They drill holes down the length of the bar, and then stuff the holes with tungsten rods. Then melt some gold into the ends to cap it off. This means they don't have to worry about replicating the markings, because they start with a real bar.

So, think not so much a "plating" but more that it's filled like a chocolate eclair.

Tungsten is close enough to gold that this will pass a simple density test.

But it will fail ultrasound inspection.

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[–] 20368805? 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

That's pretty much what I thought but according to how I read the article that's not what they are doing. The gold is real but the marking are not and in some ways that's actually worse believe it or not.

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[–] 20365505? 0 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago 

Keep in mind who owns Reuters.

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[–] 20369259? 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

Jews?

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[–] 20365409? 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

If it is gold bars, they will gold plate a brick of palladium, iirc.

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[–] 20365564? 0 points 3 points (+3|-0) ago 

Tungsten as well.

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[–] 20367537? 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

they'd pay almost as much for the palladium, now $1476/oz! ;)