Silver fraud - professional tampering

For those who wish to purchase some silver or gold, make sure you get what you pay for.

It seems that paper manipulation of the gold and silver markets is no longer enough - and additional steps have been taken to increase supply of bullion.

While the following link of a fraudulent silver bar may have been the work of anyone, the professional level of the fraud would tend to implicate those who are actually producing these bars in the first place.

If you are buying gold and silver - then drilling the bars is not unreasonable in light of the following images.

goldismoney.info...

silver rounds/slugs are pretty economical and not as lucrative to tamper with. Easier to exchange for full value than bars too. Might look into those.

reply to post by Amagnon


Nice Find Amagnon,

I am not surprised that people do this kind of thing to make money.
As you point out. surface assay testing and weighing will reveal nothing odd to the unsuspecting buyer.

there are are other methods of testing which will DEFINATELY detect internal discontinuities and these are:

Ultrasonic testing and Radiography.

Ultrasonics is probably the easiest method to use and the equipment can be hired for a day if you want to run a probe over some ingots to check that they are totally homogeneous.

I went ahead and took a position earlier in the week but have to wait 3 weeks for delivery, I will Ultrasonically scan them before I pay the balance and leave the dealers.

Thanks for all your advice

PEACE,
RK

here's another image of someone else finding similar fraud with those Engelhard 100oz bars. This seems to be a common problem.
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/69e3091f20ec.jpg[/atsimg]

Is Engelhard making these or is it a blackmarket thing?

Originally posted by warrenb
Is Engelhard making these or is it a blackmarket thing?

To me - that is the billion dollar question.

The silver market is being manipulated through the use of ETF's - but the physical market is quite small - this means it is possible to bust the ETF manipulation if people take physical delivery of their silver.

Of course - if the crooked banks, and/or the government on their payroll are counterfeiting silver - then it will be harder to break the manipulation - because they are inflating the real silver supply.

I suspect this is being done by those who are running the money printing presses.

Some scam averse investors go for smaller weight ingots , others willingly pay the extra premium for "Mint Sealed" SAE's (500oz box) , currently around spot +$1.99).


Silver is both priced , and manipulated in the futures market. In terms of production off-take , the ISHARES ETF: SLV , has arguably been the most bullish Silver fundamental since Bucky Hunt had the temerity (some might say stupidity) , to take-on the Comex shorts. Question is , does the custodian JPM , really hold the goods ?

In this market , the ironies never cease. JPM , one of the largest commercial shorts , entrusted with SLV's entire 281,863,452.300oz bullion position. Little conflict of interest maybe ?

While Friday's COT shows a modest reduction in commercial short interest (1,522 Silver contracts) , we still face a concentrated short position of 63022.

Short interest of 204,226 contracts successfully capped Gold last week. We may have languished in this band a little too long imo. If the BB's are willing to raise their ante next week, Gold could be testing the $930 support zone , and even with the COT structure slightly more bullish Silver....Silver comes-with.

**Bearish USD/Treasury news could alter the landscape most riki-tik**