3 ms·
Not too surprised by this. I have always been curious though about folks who came across gold in one form (like a sunken treasure, or pillaging a museum in a wa
by ChuckMcM 7y ago
Not too surprised by this. I have always been curious though about folks who came across gold in one form (like a sunken treasure, or pillaging a museum in a war zone) and wanted to turn it into cash, what prevents them from just melting it down into bars and selling it that way. Saving themselves the step of actually going to a refinery which is going to ask uncomfortable questions seems like a logical step to me.
- jimpudar 7y agoNothing stops them, it's just that it will be harder to convert into cash than if the gold was stamped. For example, if I take a couple of Canadian Maple Leaf coins to any local "We Buy Gold" shop, I'll get very close to spot price in cash with no questions asked. The fact that they clearly came from the Canadian mint tells the dealer that they can trust they are indeed made of 99.99 pure gold. If I come to the same dealer with a bar of gold I melted and poured myself, they may need to send it out to a lab for analysis to determine the purity, actual weight, if I'm ripping them off, etc.