Beware gold-covered tungsten fake gold from overseas

Used to be that you could buy a sterling silver ring anywhere, and sterling jewelry was plentiful. Now, all you see is cheap tungsten jewelry, or silver-covered tungsten jewelry, and that cheap jewelry is not made here in the U.S.- it is made overseas. It's a marvel, how hard it is to find good old fashioned silver jewelry, all of a sudden.

Tungsten has nearly the same density as gold. (I was just reading about how great China's tungsten mines are doing.) A couple years ago, it was found that a big shipment of gold bars in Africa were actually gold-covered steel At least one report stated this must've occurred during storage, as steel is much lighter than gold. Enter tungsten.

Sometimes, the gold bars are hollowed out, and then filled with cheap tungsten. They weigh nearly the same as pure gold bars, they look like gold bars, dent to the fingernail like gold, but inside is just a bunch of cheap tungsten metal.

With gold prices up so high, you can see how profitable it might be for some countries to manufacture fake gold bars for sale to investors. Not too many investors will take a hacksaw to their gold bars. Any gold item from overseas should raise the question about tungsten.

Gold stocks are touted as a way to "buy gold for half the price" by investing in the mining companies. But because the mining companies that are being recommended are located overseas, one might look at a gold mine as an oversized gold bar. I.e.: maybe it's filled with tungsten. You can't very easily run over there and have a look. The gold is almost unreal to begin with, because you can't see it or heft it. People who invest in gold stocks for mines overseas are investing even more blind trust than people who buy gold bars because they are investing in an intangible something sight unseen, far far away.