The Nose of the Old Fox at a German Foundry Sniffed Out Gold-Plated Tungsten Bar

Well, well. So the rumor like this was true after all?

Zero Hedge reports that the large German foundry found out that all that glitters is not gold:

German ProSieben TV Channel Finds 500 Gram Tungsten Bar At W.C.Heraeus Gold Foundry With Bank Origin (3/1/2010 Zero Hedge)

"German TV station ProSieben finds what appears to be some evocative proof of gold counterfeiting, in the form of tungsten gold substitutes coming to the W.C.Heraeus foundry, which is the world's largest privately-owned precious metals refiner and fabricator, located in Hanau, Germany. The foundry has isolated at least one 500-gram tungsten bar due for melting, originating from a (so far) unnamed bank, which as the head of the foundry stated made the unpleasant discovery that "not all the glitters is gold.""

Here's the link to the ProSieben clip on Youtube.

In the video, Herr Wilfried Hoerner, the head of the gold foundry for 30 years, says one of the workers came to him saying he didn't like the bar. It didn't feel right for some reason. So they decided to cut it. Sure enough. "The nose of the old fox was right." Die Nase des alten Fuchs.

After all, fake gold bars have been actually shipped, from no other place than a nation's central bank. As this blog reported back in December, the Ethiopian central government exported a consignment of gold bars to South Africa in 2008, only to have them returned after South Africans found out they were nothing but gilded steel bars.

Tweet