Teenage girl finds gold bar in German lake...

[Archae]

All sorts of rumors of "Nazi gold" come to mind right away.
BTW, the bar itself looks like it was hit by a propeller.

Teen finds gold bar while swimming in German Alpine lake

BERLIN (AP) — A teenager has made an unexpected find while swimming in a lake in the German Alps: a 500-gram (17.6-ounce) bar of gold.

Police said Wednesday that they are still trying to figure out where the bar comes from and how it got into the Koenigssee lake, a popular tourist destination near Berchtesgaden on the border with Austria.



http://wbay.com/ap/teen-finds-gold-bar-while-swimming-in-german-alpine-lake/

[MidwestTransplant]

1. Nazi gold?

[magicmama]

2. No. It'd have a swastika somewhere..

Usually a small one, in the center. My parents had a lighter that was from my grandfather who survived Auschwitz that had such mark. We sold it for $300.

[Art_from_Ark]

5. The Nazis often sent gold to Switzerland to have it refined

The lack of a swastika would mean that the gold would be untraceable. Nazis who would be fleeing Germany in the waning days of the war would NOT want gold with Nazi images on it.

[magicmama]

6. Interesting.

I didn't know that. Thanks.

[Blue_Tires]

3. Came from here -- Probably a smuggler who had to ditch

http://www.degussa-goldhandel.de/en/

[Archae]

4. I think you're right...

I wonder if the girl will be able to keep the gold.
Or it's worth.

[Blue_Tires]

8. Depending on who the "owner" is

I'm not sure she'd even want to keep it -- Could be very hazardous to her well-being...

[brooklynite]

13. Current pricing puts it at about $20K

[Baclava]

7. She handed it to police? wha?? ......sneak it home, melt it down and sell it!

Do I have to explain everything to you kids and your gold treasure finds?

[KamaAina]

9. Feingold? Is Russ missing anything?

[Xithras]

10. It says Degussa. That immediately raises one possibility.

Degussa AG is a huge German minerals, mining, and chemical conglomerate that has been around since the 1800's. They press gold bars because they mine and refine their own gold. Degussa was the company that also refined most of the stolen Nazi gold for the reich.

As someone else mentioned, most Nazi gold (both stolen and legitimate) had a swastika embedded into the bar, indicating that it was the property of the Nazi government. This is actually a fairly normal thing. Nations that keep gold bars as part of their treasuries stamp their names into the bars as a mark of ownership.

In the early days of WW2, there was an economic blockade placed around Germany in an effort to starve the reich of cash. This severely limited the ability of the German government to purchase materials they needed for their war effort. In order to work around the limitation, the Nazi's would send their gold to Degussa to be recast using THEIR marks (or, more likely, Degussa would just exchange their gold for the Nazi gold, and place the Nazi gold in their own stocks). Once that was done, the Nazi's could use this "private" gold to sell or trade for materials needed in Germany. It was also used to help fund German allies in Serbia, the middle east, Italy, and elsewhere. If the Germans wanted to fund something, but didn't want the German governments fingerprints on the funding, they used Degussa's bars to facilitate it.

Degussa AG is still around and is still minting gold bars, so it's impossible to know whether this was smuggled Nazi gold, but it's certainly a possibility.

[DirkGently]

11. Be interesting to know how old it is. Found this:

The history of Deutsche Gold- und Silber-Scheideanstalt during the Nazi era and immediately after the Second World War has been investigated in two scientific studies. The renowned U.S. historian Prof. Peter Hayes (Northwestern University) published the book From Cooperation to Complicity: Degussa in the Third Reich in September 2004.

(snip)

Degussa’s precious metal refineries served to refine stolen gold on behalf of the Nazi regime. Once refined, the gold was returned to the treasury, with the exception of a portion designated for industrial use, which Degussa was entitled to distribute. Dr. Banken’s study was published in 2009 (only available in German). For further information on this research study, please refer to the section "Degussa in the national socialist era."

http://history.evonik.com/sites/geschichte/en/predecessor-companies/degussa/pages/default.aspx#faq_1_6

[AngryAmish]

12. Opening scene of a movie.

[MineralMan]

14. Actually, there was a serial number

there, where the metal is gouged away. That's a clue. It's stolen, and the serial number was crudely chiseled off. A 500g bar is worth around 16,500 Euros, more or less. Having that metal removed decreases the weight.

Now, I don't know about Germany, but I know a gold dealer who would buy that without any questions, at a discount from its real market value. He'd simply melt it down, since it isn't salable with the ground-off serial number. Once melted, it's just gold that can't be identified at all.

Once it's in police hands, and was obviously stolen at some point, this poor girl will receive nothing for her find, I'm sure. Odds are, it will somehow disappear from the evidence area where it is stored, and then someone like the gold dealer I know will melt it down and pay whoever brings it in something around 10,000 Euros for it.

Sorry kid. Nice find. Thanks for dropping it by!