If they really want the bar to look authentic, they could make it out of a cheaper metal (such as copper or iron) and electroplate it. Electroplating can apply a layer of gold that is only a few microns thick, but completely opaque, and easily durable enough to apply to a movie prop.
Actors mime the authentic weight of fake props all the time. Whenever you see a character on a TV show trapped under a fallen log or support beam, you can bet that they’re using a lightweight fake. Faking the weight of a fake gold bar is business as usual.
Faking it doesn’t take an actor. My first job (not counting the paper route) was clerking in a hardware store. Occasionally we would have to unload shipments. We’d form a bucket brigade line to get it done quickly. It was great fun to to make a box of wood splitting wedges look light, or a box of furnace filters look heavy…FNGs beware!
In the promo for that same gold show (presumably), it mentioned that Fort Knox has the largest collection of the world’s gold. That doesn’t sound right to me. I would have to think that there’s more gold in (a) NYC at the Fed. Reserve Bank and (b) Switzerland … although that might be widely distributed throughout the country than the vaults at Fort Knox.
I thought the fed just handled cash rather than specie. But I have no real clue. But it would be quite interesting to see who has the biggest stash of various precious metals.
I wonder how expensive it would be to gold plate enough prop ingots to represent a pallet load like in “Killing Zoe?” I imagine those props would make for some very cool souveniers after shooting.
I’d have to dig up a cite, but it’s long been suggested that the New York federal reserve has quite the stash under the streets of Manhattan, far larger than Ft. Knox bullion depository, since NY is where several nations keep their gold for safekeeping. Numbered vaults (even countries like their privacy); so when country A pays country B in terms of gold, the bars can be trundled just a few yards away and the transaction complete. Not as handy as the internet, but still. And given politicians profligate spending, it seems likely that Ft. Knox was essentially emptied decades ago, it would be surprising were this not the case.
Most Westerns and cowboy shows rarely get this right, to the extent they even use gold or silver. Paper money was not thought of highly out West until relatively recently. So Hoss pulling out a wad of greenbacks isn’t very accurate. Both gold and silver are very heavy in meaningful quantities - so wagons or horses would have been loaded down severely in the classic stage coach/bank robbery plot. I bet that was one way to spot valuable cargo - it was way too heavy for the space it took up.
Though that’s real gold. But it reminds me of a question that has always plagued my stepfather. He is a signwriter of many decades’ experience. He knows a metric buttload of stuff about paint. He always told me that when doing gold (on honour boards, etc) you MUST go to the trouble and expense of real gold leaf, because anything else (cheap ‘gold’ paint) is comprised of metal filings in solution and will discolour with time. But he admitted one thing totally bewildered him. He said that the toy companies had seemingly perfected a very cheap gold paint that never discoloured (think gold lettering on frisbees etc). He’d give his right arm to know what it is, but he was never able to find out.
One of my teachers was an industrial chemist in a South African gold mine.
He said that visitors would be shown a bar of gold, and told that if they could pick it up with one hand, then they could have it.
Corroboration for your story.
This brings up an interesting (to me) hijack opportunity:
Is there a standard gold bar? Swiss banks have a standard issue 12.5 kg bar that has the look of the gold bars depicted in movies that I have seen (roughly 8 x 8 x 25 cm). But it does not seem at first glance that this would be that difficult to lift, even with one hand. Do they produce larger, heavier bars at mining sites for transport/storage? How big are these?
Thanks a lot. The next to last entry on this page refers to a low-purity “dore” bar produced at mines that can weigh as much as 25 kg. That would be pretty difficult to lift with one hand…
The point is that the lift has to be one handed, from above. The bars are trapezoids, so the sides that you grip with slope somewhat, and at 8cm, you can only apply force with your thumb on one side and fingers on the other. All the force you can apply is (almost) normal to the direction you want to lift the bar, and because of the sloped sides the gripping force is actually generating additional net downward force (via some vector maths). So the only force acting to lift the bar is the frictional force of your fingertips on the sides of a smooth gold bar. Increasing grip strength does increase the frictional forces somewhat, but not enough to overcome gravity plus the squeeze you are applying.
Also, the arm does not have great strength with the overhand lift scenario (but 12.5 kg is achievable).
chasing dreams has it right - superglue would work. If the weight didn’t pull your fingertips clean off.
My town library was extensively renovated years ago-decorative moldings on the ceiling were regilded-now they are turning green! Looks like whoever did the job cheated!
I was going to suggest exactly the same thing. It would be an empty victory though, because I’m sure there’s no authority behind the tour guide’s offer that you can have a gold bar if you can only pick it up.
