However, it is in theory possible to defeat the density method. Most of the metals denser than gold are also pretty rare and hard to come by. But, for example, you can buy Iridium at somewhere around half the price of gold, and since it's slightly denser, you'd just need to mix it with something lighter (or drill a few holes) to make a mostly-Iridium object seem to have the same density as gold. Perhaps if you encased it in an outer layer of actual gold, nobody would notice unless they somehow scanned the inner structure with pretty advanced instruments (or cut or melted the object).
It would take a lot of up-front capital to pull off a scam like that with any chance of success.
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