How would you smuggle it home?

[HeadlessRoland]

Winner! In fact many gold bars are fake nowadays. I think they use something other than lead but always cut into a bar before you weigh it if buying. Or use another method to dermine it has the proper weight for a given volume.

Fisch makes a great anti-counterfeit series of devices that check silver/gold coins against a series of four checks. Then again, there have been counterfeit Fisch devices pop on the market too. Always check any bullion purchased with your own device, never let a stranger weigh or check any coin without verifying their results independently. Biggest risk of fakes - especially for coins - is the use of tungsten, whose density almost matches gold's (19.25g/cubic centimeter versus 19.32g/cc for gold) and makes it very easy to plate a brick or shape of tungsten with a small plating of gold, and if done correctly, the weight can be made to almost perfectly replicate for a gold bar of the same size.

There is already a wide market for just this sort of "gold substitution," in fact:

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/tungsten-filled-10-oz-gold-bar-found-middle-manhattans-jewelry-district

Gold-plated Tungsten-Tungsten Alloy

 

[hoosierdaddy1976]

Lead is not nearly as dense as gold and all it would take is one customs agent to notice the weight is almost double what it should be and suddenly the course of one's day just got a little more interesting.

lead is more dense than gold. gold (element #79) has an atomic weight of approximately 197, lead (#82) is approximately 207. the 5% difference may not even be noticed.

 

[Hawkeye]

It would take some time, but... On a cruise ship you don't go through a metal detector when re-boarding the ship. tape the bars to your self and re-enter the cruise ship. return to the states and put in your carry off luggage... take to your car & drive home. Then give me 1/2.

Actually, you do go through metal screening to board a cruise ship.

 

[pudly]

lead is more dense than gold. gold (element #79) has an atomic weight of approximately 197, lead (#82) is approximately 207. the 5% difference may not even be noticed.

Sorry, but the atomic number doesn't really translate to the weight/unit volume. That would have made tin (#50) almost twice as heavy as iron (#26), but it actually weighs less.

Lead wt/cc = 11.34g
Gold wt/cc = 19.32g
Tungsten wt/cc = 19.25g

Source

 

[Trigger Time]

My method? If be lookin like MR-T when I came back through customs. Or I'd hire 200 friends to come with me wearing 1" thick gold chains.

 

[HeadlessRoland]

lead is more dense than gold. gold (element #79) has an atomic weight of approximately 197, lead (#82) is approximately 207. the 5% difference may not even be noticed.

Density, not atomic mass. Density.

 

[miguel]

Just get it to Mexico and walk it across the border into California. Doesn't sound like that is too uncommon, although they are usually carrying another kind of "gold"...

 

[Arm America]

I'd do a charter boat that makes regular runs to Miami.
Place the gold in the bilge, cover with some oil and water and fish all the way back.

Of course I'd report it to the Government. The Governments can blow money in ways I've never even thought of.
(then again, maybe not )

 

[BRbaseball34]

I brought back some golf clubs from over seas wroth no problems at all. Just walked through customs

 

[CitiusFortius]

Buy a bunch of pirate costumes and props and put the gold in a chest that has made in china on the bottom. Say you're making an indie movie about Pirates and the fake gold is just part of your props. Kinda like the movie Argo, although I can't picture Ben Affleck as a pirate....

 

[rhino]

gold is heavy and dense. so is lead. melt the gold, fashion it into scuba weights, paint it grey. Problem solved.

Gray paint / SCUBA weight angle is the best one. Still heck of a shipping charge - but use your business account!

Winner! In fact many gold bars are fake nowadays. I think they use something other than lead but always cut into a bar before you weigh it if buying. Or use another method to dermine it has the proper weight for a given volume.

Lead is not nearly as dense as gold and all it would take is one customs agent to notice the weight is almost double what it should be and suddenly the course of one's day just got a little more interesting.

Regardless of the next steps, melting and recasting into SOMEthing would be the logical first step. Explaining a big chunk of gold would be less troublesome than explaining chunks that were easily identifiable as not being your property.

The scuba weight idea is good. The caution of the difference in density is also very important, but it does not preclude using this idea.

In order to match the density of lead, all you'd have to do is drill some holes in the weights until you get get close to the density of lead. Then plug the holes with epoxy or something else light, THEN paint them like scuba weights.

Problem solved.

Some of it could also be cast as the weights that deep sea divers wear on their boots. That would be even easier to disguise since they are an odd shape.

In addition, you could make some into jewelry. Not too much, but some.

 

[hoosierdaddy1976]

Sorry, but the atomic number doesn't really translate to the weight/unit volume. That would have made tin (#50) almost twice as heavy as iron (#26), but it actually weighs less.

Lead wt/cc = 11.34g
Gold wt/cc = 19.32g
Tungsten wt/cc = 19.25g

Source

Density, not atomic mass. Density.

crap, my bad. you're both right.

fine, put a lighter material in the core when molding. weight problem solved.

 

[CathyInBlue]

Play the counterfeitting off on itself. Melt the gold down and cast new bullion. Then, sputter a thick (1 mm) layer of tungsten onto the surface. Then, paint it with gold spray paint.

Someone gets suspicious and scrapes it, they find the tungsten and lose interest. You want just the gold back, just melt it down again. Gold has a much lower melting point than tungsten.

 

[rhino]

Play the counterfeitting off on itself. Melt the gold down and cast new bullion. Then, sputter a thick (1 mm) layer of tungsten onto the surface. Then, paint it with gold spray paint.

Someone gets suspicious and scrapes it, they find the tungsten and lose interest. You want just the gold back, just melt it down again. Gold has a much lower melting point than tungsten.

You have so done this before.

rhino out!

 

[hoosierdoc]

Play the counterfeitting off on itself. Melt the gold down and cast new bullion. Then, sputter a thick (1 mm) layer of tungsten onto the surface. Then, paint it with gold spray paint.

Someone gets suspicious and scrapes it, they find the tungsten and lose interest. You want just the gold back, just melt it down again. Gold has a much lower melting point than tungsten.

I am guessing it's not easy to come across a ton of elemental tungsten in the Bahamas, though I admit I've never tried.

 

[dmarsh8]

I was once listening to some talk show on the radio. I don't remember the guy's name but he hosted a show that just gave out advice on everyday circumstances. One caller said they'd just bought an old farm place and in the process of fixing it up and cleaning it out, they came across SHEETs of $100 bills. The guy told the caller to not mention where he was calling from or any identifying information. He told him to keep quiet about the find and do whatever he wanted to or felt he was obligated to do with the found money. Those folks that found that gold should have done the same **** thing.

But then they wouldn't get their 15 min of fame on the TEEE VEEE!(or any other media, I don't know if they were on TV or not lol).
If so, then they found out how expensive air time really is.

 

[GodFearinGunTotin]

I am guessing it's not easy to come across a ton of elemental tungsten in the Bahamas, though I admit I've never tried.

I think they have that in the Walmarts down there.

 

[Mad Macs]

Why not just stay where you found it? Provided it's a nice tropical location.

 

[KittySlayer]

Why in the world would you be leaving the Bahamas to return to the frozen tundra of Indiana if you are millionaire?

 

[Dolton916]

Why in the world would you be leaving the Bahamas to return to the frozen tundra of Indiana if you are millionaire?

+1
If in the Bahamas I'd charter a boat and take it to our place in Mexico...and stay there.