How would law abiding citizen Joe Random from Nowhere even know where to offload that on the black market?

It's a bit like internet piracy, make it easy and convenient to follow the law and most people will do it.

protocolture 15 hours ago | parent | next [-]

>How would law abiding citizen Joe Random from Nowhere even know where to offload that on the black market?

Considering the state of copper theft, the large number of videos on facebook and youtube describing how to melt metals into bar stock, and the low cost of the tools I dont know why this would be considered specialist knowledge.

Maybe if they needed aqua regia or something.

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TulliusCicero 15 hours ago | parent | next [-]

This comment reminds me of discussion when weed gets legalized in the states.

There's always people going, "psh, this won't make weed any more accessible, it's already so easy to get, anybody can do it!"

And yet, nevertheless, inevitably there are people who try it only because it's now legal and openly sold in stores. A lot of people simply don't want to do things they consider shady, no matter how easy it is. Maybe it being legalized doesn't make it any more accessible to you, but you aren't everyone.

	▲	protocolture 14 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I see where you are coming from but not quite. What I am saying is that the process is already legal and available, so the process isn't a barrier to melting and selling the gold. I don't take a position on whether someone would simply not do it because its illegal. The process of growing and selling weed was illegal, and thus also a barrier to accessing weed. If anything your line of reasoning makes me want to legalise and protect melting gold you find and selling it.

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sandworm101 10 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

It isn't that easy. Anyone paying money for a homemade bar will test it first. The ancient gold will be very impure by bullion standards. The fact that it was horde gold will be found out very quickly.

	▲	protocolture 8 hours ago \| parent [-]
		>Anyone paying money for a homemade bar will test it first. There's a pretty lively market in gold on ebay. Often forged into bars or coins by end users. I have personally dealt with retail gold buyers who legally clear gold of all sorts with little question. They pay based on purity and likely have a price for whatever purity the horde gold is smelted at. There's also that Singapore Gold Port at the Singapore Airport. Even if they wont touch you directly, there are IIRC, in person trades in the airport which can then be deposited straight into storage.

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BurningFrog 19 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Can't say I've tried, but I think it's pretty easy to find buyers for gold.

Melting it removes the legal risk.

	▲	dwattttt 18 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Melting it removes _a_ legal risk. I'm sure if someone looks they can find a risk or two still there somewhere.

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thrance 19 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

You'd be surprised of how easy it is for "Joe Random from Nowhere" to sell their illegaly sourced priceless artefacts. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lava_Treasure