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FACT CHECK: Video of gold bars taken at US Mint’s gold and silver vault

Rappler.com

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FACT CHECK: Video of gold bars taken at US Mint’s gold and silver vault
The video used by the false claim to show the alleged Marcos gold bars in a Swiss Bank was actually taken in West Point Mint in the US

Claim: A video shows Swiss Bank officials weighing what is alleged to be gold bars owned by the Marcos family. 

The video says that the Swiss Bank decided that it is now time to return the Marcos gold bars to the Philippines and that the gold bars being weighed will be returned to the country.

Rating: FALSE

Why we fact-checked this: The YouTube video containing the claim has over 3,500 views as of writing. 

Video from US Mint: The video clip shown in the claim was part of a video first posted by the official YouTube channel of the United States Mint on April 19, 2018. 

According to the US Mint, the video was taken at West Point Mint’s gold and silver vault.

According to the US Mint website, the West Point Mint stores silver, gold, and platinum bullion. It also mints the following:

  • American Eagle proof and uncirculated coins in gold, silver, and platinum
  • American Buffalo gold bullion coins
  • Commemorative Coins as authorized by Congress

Dismissed by Swiss authorities: The false claim that former president and dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos shipped gold to Switzerland, which first circulated in the 1990s, was already debunked by Swiss Authorities in 1991. 

A report of the Associated Press published on August 15, 1991, said that then-Presidential Commission on Good Government chairman David Castro claimed that Marcos secretly shipped 320 tons (290 metric tons) of gold to Switzerland. Swiss authorities dismissed the claim as groundless. – Lorenz Pasion/Rappler.com

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