...then cut it in half to make sure it's not gold-plated tungsten.
Beat me to it. This is why I'd never buy a precious metal, especially gold. How can you ever be sure it's real?
Fairly simple XRF + thermal conductivity + resistivity tests will completely guarantee that a bar of gold is what it says on the face. For extra paranoia there's more complex ultrasonic testing.
Thanks guys, I was always interested for real when and if one day gold would be needed but there's bitcoin now