Royal Canadian Mint says phoney gold bar was a counterfeit attempt
OTTAWA — The Royal Canadian Mint says a phoney gold bar sold to a jeweller by an Ottawa bank may have looked like the real thing, but was actually a counterfeit.
The small gold wafer wasn’t made or sold by the mint, although it was made to look genuine, said spokesman Alex Reeves.
The jeweller who bought the bar told the CBC his goldsmith knew something was wrong when he tried to put the wafer through a mill and found it was much too hard and brittle to be gold.
Reeves says the mint does not sell bullion direct to the public.