Alert On Fake Gold and Silver.
This is being added due to a general increase in the sales of fake and counterfeit metals in markets all over the world. In fact even copper is being faked in some devices. As noted in the earlier research data concerning resistance, copper has a lower resistance to the flow of electricity than aluminum, but silver in it's purest form is the best conductor at normal temperatures.
Recent imports of transformers from overseas manufacturers have been found to have aluminum wiring with a copper plating in place of pure copper wire. This causes more resistance and poorer efficiency as well as potentially dangerous heating. Note also that aluminum melts at a lower temperature, and can even catch fire at a high enough temperature. These cheap transformers may pose a hazard and are hard to detect.Poor efficiency may be an early indication, as well as overheating. It is easy to scratch a small section of the wire and see the white aluminum under the copper plating, however this can be dangerous since there is a clear coat of insulating material on the outside of the wire and that would need to be recoated before use. Never touch a transformer when it is plugged in, and beware of large charged electrical units which can discharge through transformers even when not plugged in. Electrical knowledge is needed when checking high powered devices.
Some know of some of my research in silver conductivity, and work towards superconductivity in silver applications at higher temperatures and the "Coiled Silver Vacuum Tube" experiment. Others have had varried degrees of reproduction of the essential experiment.We have determined that some of the "silver tubes" have been made with less than pure silver. That was when we began investigating the fake silver market, and it is massive and highly distributed all over the world! Also Gold is being faked in massive quanities. Hence this alert; as any element used in experimentation; {silver, gold, and copper} must be of a known composition and quality.Just because a coin or bar is marked .999 fine does not mean that it is what it is marked as.
A lot of expensive research can be destroyed because someone slipped you some fake metals. After local research on the open market near where I live we discovered dozens of fake metals and counterfeit coins. A very large amount of "scrap gold" jewelry was found to be marked as 14k and so forth and was actually just gold plated or brass.Complete sets of fake China Gold Coins with certificates of authenticity abound. One dealer had a large assortment of large silver coins from all over the world, and when weighed and tested all were fakes.New American Silver Eagles were found that were fake as well. So called Slabbed coins that were supposed to have been graded by a ficticious grading service were also fake.In short almost anything available can forged.We are still checking locally.
So WARNING; the price of precious metals is climbing and the fakes are starting to out number the real deal !
There are sites all over the internet right now that are selling fake gold and silver.Never buy anything unless you can examine it very carefully before you pay.Learn the tests that are needed. Many fakes are made of copper-nickel with a Silver or Gold plating.So just dropping the coin to hear the ringing sound is not enough, these metal mixtures are not highly magnetic either so that is not a tell all.(Pure Nickel is magnetic,US nickels are made of copper-nickel)The best test is knowing the exact specific gravity of a coin or bar. Gold can be safely tested with acids,(acid test) but silver will be slightly etched during an acid test, no problem if all you want is purity of siver, but coin collectors would shudder.An electrical resistance test is also helpful.I would not buy online unless it's from a known friend! If you try to return a fake coin and the dealer says; "that's not the same coin I sent you"; you are stuck! Actually that has been done to reputable dealers by counterfeiters by buying the real coin and sending a fake back with a complaint. Guarantees are always subject to interpretation! Some sites on the net are actually selling fake silver bars and coins and telling that it is fake, sometimes for very cheap prices. Explanation is usually that collectors like to have a fake to show off or as an example, but the number that are now being sold as real is astronomical and many who buy are doing so to make a profit off of the unknowing public.
There is no way to tell how many people have "invested" in precious metals, and think they have rolls of silver or gold coins sitting in a safety deposit box, and will find out when it's time to sell that the coins are fake.When the reality of how widespread the faking is by the average buyer, and testing is done to determine what's real and what's not, there will be a lot of upset people. There already are quite a few around here. But I am afraid this will also send an increase in the price of real metals on the market. I will include a number of links to sites that will aid those interested in these metals and the massive fraud that is currently ongoing. Links about counterfeiting and testing for metals and coins will be included.For more scientific review of how these metals effect scientific research please go back to the original article that this is a reply to.Anyone with additional information that they wish to add on this subject should do so as soon as possible.If anyone finds new false metals please send us a warning.
I do not endorse any companies in the following links, they are for research and information only.
Mystery
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Counterfeit coins;
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/reidgold/draped_busts/chinese.html
http://www.coinauthentication.co.uk/newsletter5.html
http://www.coinauthentication.co.uk/science&coins.html
http://www.silver-coins.org/american_eagle_dollar.html
http://www.longbeach.gov/news/displaynews.asp?NewsID=2514&targetid=21
http://rg.ancients.info/guide/counterfeits.html
http://www.amazon.com/Official-Guide-Grading-Counterfeit-Detection/dp/0375720502
http://www.coinworld.com/sycee_0228.asp
http://www.coinworld.com/sycee2_0228.asp
http://www.coinworld.com/sycee3_0228.asp
http://boards.collectors-society.com/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/1244930/site_id/1#import
http://www.free-ed.net/sweethaven/CrimeJustice/CSI/default.asp?iNum=23
US Whitman gold counterfeit coin detection book;
http://www.whitmanbooks.com/Default.aspx?Page=81&ProductID=0794820077
Pandas and silver;
http://goldismoney.info/forums/t32093-fake-chinese-panda.html
http://reviews.ebay.com/Counterfeit-Pandas-Chinese-Silver-and-Gold_W0QQugidZ10000000000935653
http://beta.ngccoin.com/news/viewarticle.aspx?NewsletterNewsArticleID=67
http://rscott.org/bullion/counter.htm
http://goldprice.org/buy-silver/2006/01/buy-silver-bars.html
Testing, weighing; gold and silver sites;