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Comment by vl | Hacker News Reader

How exactly would you go about that? And how are you going to make sure you are buying gold and not gold-plated lead?

You go to a reputable dealer with cash, and buy what you want. If you’re clear you are doing a cash only deal no name, you’re good.

They’ll issue you an invoice made out to walk in or whatever, so you have documentation, and if you want, you can pay taxes on gains or whatever later.

It IS getting harder to get cash out of a bank without jumping through endless hoops, but most banks will still let you call in an order for $20k cash or whatever (more than $100k starts to become much more difficult) and after a few days will have it ready for you with documentation (so if a cop pulls you over you can prove it is documented/part of a ‘legal’ source).

Some will make you sign a waiver so if you get mugged outside the bank, you were warned and it’s not their fault, etc. at some point it’s probably worthwhile to get an armored truck or whatever.

> so if a cop pulls you over you can prove it is documented/part of a ‘legal’ source

Which the cop will promptly ignore and take the money anyway.

Which if you have a dashcam, paperwork, and lawyers could put him in jail or get you shot.

You do have enough lawyers right?

Also do you have your dashcam automatically backing up into the cloud as it records? Or at least, paperwork proving you had a dashcam in your car?

I really want to believe things are not that bad in the US.

Depends entirely on the agency/area.

Some are really good, some are…… really not.

And it’s hard to predict what you’ll get unless you really know the area.

No because once your money is charged (not you, your money) it is very difficult to get standing to fight it unless you luck out with the judge or something. And no matter the outcome the cop never sees consequences because of qualified immunity.

Nah, if you can show the source of the money was legit (drawn from a legit bank for instance), you at a minimum have a solid claim for civil damages.

Where the civil asset forfeiture stuff really gets people is when they don’t have a paper trail.

None of this matters. The police are definitely not going to be put in jail for doing their job. And seizing "large amounts" of cash falls squarely into their job description.

The department has an army of lawyers who deal with civil asset forfeiture all the time, and they can call in federal assistance if needed. There's a 95% chance the department will keep all of the cash, and in the other 5% they merely keep some of it.

Paperwork won't help because the prosecutors will successfully argue that it could be used for future crimes.

Civil asset forfeiture makes a mockery of the US legal system, but most people don't follow it enough to see just how bad it really is.

Civil asset forfeiture requires some degree of at least suspicion that things are not above board, AND they need to know it’s there. A receipt for a cash withdrawal sitting on top of the stack of cash that 100% shows every dollar came from a legit bank? And it was in a place you didn’t give them consent to search, and you can show there was no probable cause to search?

Someone’s gonna lose their job over that, at least if you have enough lawyers

Where civil asset forfeiture comes in hard core is when you can’t show the source of the money.

It requires no such thing. Police have argued (successfully) many times in many jurisdictions that the mere possession of large amounts of cash is suspicious in and of itself, and being able to show legal sources is pointless because the argument is that it COULD be used for a crime.

Mere possession WITH NO PAPERWORK. This is an important distinction.

Show me a case otherwise.

I think he is talking about the reletively high number of people that buy and sell gold for cash as private parity sales. Generally, I have been gold authenticated by taking the density with a good scale and water displacement. Though that technically could be faked it would be very hard. If you wanted to do it quickly you could probably cut a corner off because the stuff in circulation is normally high enough grade that it's almost soft. Gold Plated lead would feel off to anyone that's handled gold before from density alone. Gold is nearly twice as dense. That's why it made a great coin in the past. It's far denser than anyother common materials.

Honestly, no need - if you’re going that route, I’d personally want a XRF machine or ultrasound tester at least.

Plenty of reputable shops, and most are more than happy to do cash transactions.

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