Quote Originally Posted by chad View Post
they're trying really hard. there can't be that many places on planet earth that could produce tungsten blanks, you'd think the fbi or whoever could figure it out in about 1 day. unless of course, they were told not to.
I agree. First, I can't believe that there isn't a good audit trail kept on these 10 oz gold bars, at $18,000 a pop. Who in his right mind would buy such an item without knowing the seller and the seller's supplier. As for the fakes, these required very sophisticated machining and counterfeiting experience. You can count on your hand how many groups have that degree of sophistication. And a government-run operation a-la North Korean superbills cannot be dismissed. At minimum, FBI and Interpol have a very short list of prime candidates.

I'm thinking that the bars were embedded ina hard wax or resin. Then a CNC machine cut the bars and honed out the interior gold to perfectly match pre-made tungsten inserts. The sealing of the bar halves and hiding the seams required masterful technique.