Eureka! I found a way to take advantage of nutters and take their money

[RandomGuy]

Fake gold bars found in Manhattan
In tough times, gold is always held up as the shining path toward financial stability. Stash your gold bars in the basement, and watch the banks collapse.

But watch out, all that glitters may not be gold: A few fake bars have been discovered in Manhattan's jewelry district, Fox 5 News reports.

It started when Ibrahim Fadl bought a gold bar for nearly $!8,000 from a merchant who had sold him real gold in the past. But he had heard there were fakes going around. So he drilled into some of his 10-ounce bars -- valued at $100,000 -- and found gray tungsten instead.

"I really got sick. It's a big amount of money and I could not believe that somebody was so professional and clever, it's perfect," Fadle said.

Here's why even the reputable merchant got fooled: As explained by Fox

What makes it so devious is a real gold bar is purchased with the serial numbers and papers, then it is hollowed out, the gold is sold, the tungsten is put in, then the bar is closed up. That is a sophisticated operation.

The sophisticated operation may be global in scope: Gold bars filled with tungsten showed up in England earlier this year. The Secret Service is investigating the counterfeits in New York.

So the next time you go to pick up some gold bars, you may want to bring along your drill.
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/fake-gold-bars-found-manhattan-174527967.html

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10 points if you can get why the first word in the title is ironic/relevant.

[Drachen]

it was yelled by archemides (sp?) when he found out that crown was not pure. (can't remember the whole story).

Smart guys.

[clambake]

i thought you were going to open a church.

[spurs_fan_in_exile]

it was yelled by archemides (sp?) when he found out that crown was not pure. (can't remember the whole story).

Smart guys.

IIRC a Greek king or noble or some rich bastard commissioned a crown to be made for him. He provided the smith with the gold needed to make the crown but afterwards started to have doubts. He feared that the craftsman may have basically gold plated cheaper metal and kept the rest of the gold for himself. Naturally he didn't want to just split the crown open to find out. So he tasked Archimedes to crack the case and devise a method to see if the crown was gold all the way through without destroying it in the process. He figured out that he could use water displacement to test the volume of the gold in the crown in question when he saw the water level rise as he got into a bath. The more entertaining version of the story goes that he was so psyched about the realization that he ran straight out of his bath to tell the king without stopping to get dressed shouting "Eureka!" all the way.

[Blake]

i thought you were going to open a church.

[Drachen]

IIRC a Greek king or noble or some rich bastard commissioned a crown to be made for him. He provided the smith with the gold needed to make the crown but afterwards started to have doubts. He feared that the craftsman may have basically gold plated cheaper metal and kept the rest of the gold for himself. Naturally he didn't want to just split the crown open to find out. So he tasked Archimedes to crack the case and devise a method to see if the crown was gold all the way through without destroying it in the process. He figured out that he could use water displacement to test the volume of the gold in the crown in question when he saw the water level rise as he got into a bath. The more entertaining version of the story goes that he was so psyched about the realization that he ran straight out of his bath to tell the king without stopping to get dressed shouting "Eureka!" all the way.

Yeah, there ya go smarty pants.

[RandomGuy]

Heh, gold being debased... one of THE oldest tricks in the book.