Tungsten is a grey inexpensive metal that is almost as heavy as gold. Though it doesn’t glister, fraudsters find it extremely valuable when it comes to forging gold bars. To produce and sell a fake bullion criminals buy a real one, so that they can provide real documents with their bullion. Then they make a smaller one of tungsten and cover it with a thin layer of gold which bears the serial number and the looks of the real one. One of such bars has recently been purchased in Manhattan for nearly $18,000. So who knows how many of such bars are there in the market.
It is unfortunate that there are such people that want to scam others.