Ready to use real Aqua Regia, but first here my previous try

[Harold_V]

Depending on who is checking the specific gravity, such a difference between solid gold, and say, gold-clad tungsten would be tough to detect. I'm sure someone somewhere has thought "hmm, let me pass this here tungsten bar off as a gold bar!" :roll: Probably quite possible given the general ignorance of people... :-/
Lou

Oh, yeah! Big time!
I'll never forget the time I was invited to meet an elderly couple that had an ingot of "gold" that they wanted me to inspect. They insisted we meet at a public place, to insure their safety, and to insure that I didn't pull any capers with their "gold".

After meeting their approval, they pulled out an ingot. Yellow it was. Gold it wasn't. These idiots had a piece of yellow brass (specific gravity----what, maybe 9?) and were convinced it was gold because someone had gone out of their way to make it look like a (poor) example of a gold ingot. Way too much draft, for one.

Even when I showed them (nitric acid) that it wasn't gold, they weren't convinced.

People are very easy to dupe when it comes to gold. Most folks have never held, or even seen, pure gold, aside from plating. They don't have a clue about its properties, but greed blinds all too many people. They are very easy to dupe------which is why I always toss out a cautionary post when ever anyone posts a "good deal" on gold, especially gold ores, or placer.

Be careful, folks, it's more likely a deal is bad than it is good. Money NEVER chases people.

Harold