There is no evidence it was a gold train though.
But Astro, surely you trust us?
You are so going to hell for that.
Sell it and donate the proceeds to any of the various Holocaust charities, if they’d have it. I’m not keeping that money, though.
I’d go through Sotheby’s rather than eBay for something like that I think.
Take it to the guys at “Pawn Stars”.
That’s better than my plan. I was going to cut it in half and count the rings.
You could show it to your golf buddy.
Looks real- I can probably give you fifty bucks for it, but before I make you that offer, lemme call my buddy- he’s a Nazi.
Or run it past the Antique Road Show.
I’m not too sure they would take $400,000. Who would?
Same here. I’m spending it.
Actually their policy is to stay away from almost anything Nazi related; especially anything with political overtones. If you follow the show, they have turned down (not made any offer) various picture albums and a lot of other things related to the Third Reich. Their only weakness seems to be some of the electronics.
I was selling some American WWII stuff on eBay for a friend, and I’ve received a message from a guy who wants me to contact him privately via email if I ever come across any swastika items.
Just so you know.
Even assuming that a specific gold bar was made using stolen gold, how could the link be established? Once melted, there’s no way to know where the gold was originally coming from. If the bar was stolen, it would probably be the property of Germany.
The Nazis didn’t obtain the gold illegally. During the 3rd Reich, it was perfectly legal for the Nazi government to confiscate gold in the form of bullion, coins, jewelry, dental fillings, and fancy dinnerware from Jews in Germany and other occupied countries. And I don’t doubt that there are those who will pay more for Nazi gold “confiscated” from murdered Jews than for gold that was collected in the more traditional ways (panning or mining). I think it’s the panache or something.
As for the morality? It’s the seller’s and buyer’s conscience, not mine.
Sure, it was legal under Nazi laws, but so was gassing millions of people. A swastika-emblazoned trinket like a dinner plate or lapel pin is one thing, but the phrase ‘Nazi gold’ itself is practically a synonym for heinously stolen war booty.
Have you ever read an OP in its entirety, Charlie? “I wondered what would happen if”. Does that sound like a real situation? “I wondered what would happen if”. Read it again. “I wondered what would happen if”.
Ya think?
This wouldn’t really be a good idea. For the sake of argument, let’s leave out the swasticker stuff and it was just a plain old 400 oz. bar. Good problem to have! These are known as “Good delivery” bars and have to meet certain standards for weight and fineness. They don’t always weigh exactly 400 oz (Troy) but within a range.
They don’t normally leave the exchange once they have been authenticated and assayed and serial numbered and all that. Once they do, nobody will touch them. At least not at their actual melt value, not until they have been authenticated and/or assayed again.
If you walk into a metals buyer, coin shop etc with home-made bars he may buy them, but only at a hefty discount to the spot price. Maybe scrap gold prices, it would be a big hit. Maybe to some people it wouldn’t matter, easy come easy go. This is why the .999 pure coins are so popular, there is no assay required and they will always fetch the best prices, sometimes even over spot when demand is high.