Manhattan Gold & Silver has come across yet another precious metals scam. Obviously, we don’t want our friends in the jewelry, industrial, or pawnbroker fields to fall victim to something that could potentially cost them a lot of money. Luckily, this scam is rather novel in our opinion, so it’s easy to keep an eye out for.
Frankly, we just don’t see a lot of palladium bars come our way. So, when a customer of ours came across some, we were interested. Fortunately, our vigorous testing found the bars out to be fake – silver on the outside and copper in the middle. No palladium at all.
There are a number of ways to spot these fake bars.
1 If they say 1 ounce on them, then they should weigh 1 ounce. All you have to do is weigh it. A real palladium bar will weigh exactly 1 ounce or 20 pennyweights.
2 These fake bars are also larger in size than genuine palladium bars.
3 The ones our customers came across were silver on the outside. Palladium will hold up to nitric or 14k acid. Rub the bar on a basalt stone and put some nitric acid on the mark. If it disappears, it can’t be palladium.
4 The case these particular bars came in was a clear, hard plastic case. Other fakes may circulate in a similar fashion.
Hopefully, the word will get out about these fakes. If you have any further questions feel free to call. We hope this post saves you from making a costly mistake!
