How to spot fake gold

Fake gold, while not as widespread as some would have you believe, is still a major problem. So how can you be sure you're buying the real thing? Matthew Partridge explains.

Here at MoneyWeek, we're big fans of gold. We're also pretty keen on tungsten.

However, we're not so enthused about the idea of mixing the two. While both metals share the same density, tungsten costs a fraction of the price. That gives a very strong incentive to try to pass one off as the other and Felix Salmon of Reuters has recently been reporting on claims that some gold bars have been salted' with tungsten rods.

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Dr Matthew Partridge
Shares editor, MoneyWeek

Matthew graduated from the University of Durham in 2004; he then gained an MSc, followed by a PhD at the London School of Economics.

He has previously written for a wide range of publications, including the Guardian and the Economist, and also helped to run a newsletter on terrorism. He has spent time at Lehman Brothers, Citigroup and the consultancy Lombard Street Research.

Matthew is the author of Superinvestors: Lessons from the greatest investors in history, published by Harriman House, which has been translated into several languages. His second book, Investing Explained: The Accessible Guide to Building an Investment Portfolio, is published by Kogan Page.

As senior writer, he writes the shares and politics & economics pages, as well as weekly Blowing It and Great Frauds in History columns He also writes a fortnightly reviews page and trading tips, as well as regular cover stories and multi-page investment focus features.

Follow Matthew on Twitter: @DrMatthewPartri