The Royal Canadian Mint is reassuring investors that its bullion is pure after a mint-stamped gold bar sold to a customer at a downtown Ottawa RBC branch was found to be counterfeit.
Alex Reeves, a spokesperson for the crown corporation, said the mint 鈥渄id not manufacture, ship, or sell鈥� the one-ounce bar, even though it appeared to be stamped with an official mint insignia.
The bar was purchased at the RBC branch at the corner of Bank Street and First Avenue for $1,680 on Oct. 18, by Samuel Tang, a gemologist and jewelry designer at the Joy Creations shop across the street.
Tang鈥檚 goldsmith, Dennis Barnard, said he opened the mint-branded packaging to roll the bar into a thin sheet for jewelry manufacturing. He immediately realized something was wrong when he started working with the metal.
鈥淚t was way too hard to be gold,鈥� he told CTVNews.ca.
Barnard has worked as a goldsmith for three decades. He said nothing about the blister packaging it came in, or general appearance, suggested the bar was anything besides the genuine article.
鈥淰isually, it was spot on. It was a phenomenal piece. Initially, holding it in my hand, I was fooled. The weight was spot on,鈥� he said.
鈥淩BC has confirmed that the bar it sold to its customer did not come from the Royal Canadian Mint, and it continues to investigate the matter with our support,鈥� Reeves said in a statement on Tuesday.
He later added that, 鈥渁 number of errors in the design and packaging of the wafer鈥� confirmed the product鈥檚 inauthenticity, as well as the fact that it did not originate at the Mint.
An RBC spokesperson declined to say where the fake gold came from. AJ Goodman told CTVNews.ca that the 鈥渧ast majority鈥� of bullion sold to clients is sourced from the Mint, but other suppliers are used in 鈥渓imited instances.鈥�
Barnard said his tests showed the bar was 鈥渂asically bogus,鈥� but did not reveal its true composition.
The mint complained that news of the fraudulent sale has 鈥渞aised unfounded speculation as to the origins of the counterfeit and the purity of Royal Canadian Mint bullion products.鈥�
Investors typically look to gold as a safe-haven to hedge against risk and volatility. Barnard said he finds it troubling that neither the Mint nor RBC has offered any explanation as to where the fake gold came from, and why it wasn鈥檛 intercepted before it was sold to Tang.
鈥淭hink how many people purchase gold bars as investment pieces . . . put it in a safety deposit box for their children someday to inherit it,鈥� Barnard said.
鈥淐ounterfeiting of Royal Canadian Mint bullion products is extremely rare and this is an isolated case,鈥� the mint鈥檚 statement continued. 鈥淲e take suspicion of counterfeit seriously and work with law enforcement to support their investigations.鈥�
According to the statement, the mint tests all of its gold products to ensure 99.99 per cent purity.
Goodman said RBC has 鈥渞eached a resolution鈥� with the buyer, and called the incident an 鈥渦nfortunate situation.鈥� He declined to comment further as the matter is 鈥渨ith law enforcement for further investigation.鈥�
Barnard said, while the shop has been refunded the $1,680 purchase price, he feels both the Mint and RBC were slow to respond after he and Tang raised concerns about the authenticity of the gold.
鈥淓ven if they wanted to handle it quietly, they went about it the wrong way,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 know if they were hoping that we would just go away, but we are not a massive company that can afford to just drop $1,680 and forget about. Even if we could, what about everybody else out there that could be affected by this.鈥�
