The fakers are banking on the hope that the only test you do out of the package is weighing it on a scale. Gold coins are smaller than one might imagine them to be (Scrooge McDuck had some massive gold coins). Long story short: measure your gold bars with a ruler or calipers against known gold bars to make sure the volume and density is correct. Usually they won't come out of nowhere they will come into the legitimate market with provenance. That's a solid fact, but just don't do it to rare bars with collector value. The material that you're investing in doesn't degrade or become 'lesser' if you dent the gold. If you have a strong young hand it is not difficult to bend a gold coin or bar with just your fingers in one hand. If it's difficult to leave a scratch or dent on it then it's not gold. Take your bars out of the packaging and start FEELING your gold. It will weigh 31.1g or even more, but gold is DENSE. Most fake bars are the exact size of real gold bars from the top-down, but the THICKNESS of the bar gives it away. You would think that a straight copy would be enough but that would mean that the bars would be underweight (debased metals are not as heavy as gold). The reason that they overhaul the design altogether is because the volume of the bar must be a certain size (think of density of gold). In a lot of cases the counterfeiter couldn't be bothered to copy a bar straight up. They have certain aesthetic styles which please the eye or the opposite.

Anyone who spends a lot of time doing only one thing become really good at it, same with all of our hobbies.įont is another big indicator. It takes experience to spot plating, but once you sort out your colors in your mind it's like spotting emeralds and diamonds it becomes a split-second decision. Most fake gold bars that I've seen are too yellow and are visibly plated. Do not trust the packaging! Packaging is easier to fake than gold itself as it doesn't require any specialized skills to print something. This is just me, but I'm a cowboy so I bite my gold (24K!) bars and coins to test them. Best thing to do is learn the color of gold.

Credit suisse gold bar replica