Fraud? Dealers offer a customer silver prices for platinum

[J Newman]

Part of my family has South African heritage and were in the platinum
mining business before having to sell out.

So this little old lady of unassuming disposition walks into a few pawn
shops and precious metal dealers in London with a few platinum coins she
wants to liquidate. Now, it's stamped clearly on the coins "Fine
platinum". She knows what they're worth.

She asks a bland question, "Times are hard and I'd like to sell these.
How much would I get for it?"

Although a 1oz silver coin weighs the same as a 1oz platinum coin
(obviously), the sizes are very different given the higher density of
platinum (21.45 g/cc) vs. silver (10.49 g/cc).

In almost all the shops she visited, the person behind the counter took
a close look at the coins, weighed them, some measured them with
calipers and said they'll pay 20 quid each for her silver coins.

She obviously said "Thank you very much, I'll think about it", took the
coins back and exited the stores.

If she closed the deal and could prove that the dealer claimed it was
silver when she was selling something marked as platinum (e.g. hidden
camera or recording), could they be charged with fraud?

[Jon Ribbens]

Post by J Newman
Part of my family has South African heritage and were in the platinum
mining business before having to sell out.
So this little old lady of unassuming disposition walks into a few pawn
shops and precious metal dealers in London with a few platinum coins she
wants to liquidate. Now, it's stamped clearly on the coins "Fine
platinum". She knows what they're worth.
She asks a bland question, "Times are hard and I'd like to sell these.
How much would I get for it?"
Although a 1oz silver coin weighs the same as a 1oz platinum coin
(obviously), the sizes are very different given the higher density of
platinum (21.45 g/cc) vs. silver (10.49 g/cc).
In almost all the shops she visited, the person behind the counter took
a close look at the coins, weighed them, some measured them with
calipers and said they'll pay 20 quid each for her silver coins.
She obviously said "Thank you very much, I'll think about it", took the
coins back and exited the stores.
If she closed the deal and could prove that the dealer claimed it was
silver when she was selling something marked as platinum (e.g. hidden
camera or recording), could they be charged with fraud?

I don't really see how, unless they specifically tried to justify the
valuation based on some false premise. If she had pushed them a bit
harder to explain their thinking then perhaps - but good luck getting
the police interested.

I took a sapphire ring up and down Hatton Garden a while back to get
it valued, and the numbers the shopkeepers came up with varied *wildly*
- some ten times as much as others. In the end I got Bonhams to auction
it, based on the recommendation of one of the shopkeepers, and ended up
with rather less than what that shopkeeper had offered on the spot!