Source: "In 1968, we went to the World Bank meeting. The South Africans were there and we invited the South African Finance Minister to our hotel room."
"Dr Goh wanted to buy gold at a fixed price, rather than a floating market price. So we agreed to buy 100 tons, a substantial amount, at $40 US dollars."
"Then he took out his US one dollar note. And sliced it into halves! Just like that. He gave half to me and said, "You keep this. I will keep the other half and my man will meet you in Switzerland.""
"I handed the sliced US dollar note over. He took out the other half. It matched! The serial numbers were the same."
Ngiam, Tong Dow. A Mandarin and the Making of Public Policy: Reflections by Ngiam Tong Dow. ISBN: 978-9971-69-350-3
Reviewed:
Created by BenTanXiaoMing (talk).
Number of QPQs required: 0. Nominator has fewer than 5 past nominations.
@BenTanXiaoMing:@TParis: This hook violates WP:EGG, and the claim that it is/was the "largest" purchase is never mentioned in the article, just that it was the first. A new hook is needed. Kimikel (talk) 03:09, 4 November 2024 (UTC)
@Kimikel: "Largest" was in there at the time of the review. It was removed in this edit by @Justanothersgwikieditor:. I've added it in with a new ref. And the hook is fine. No one expects to find an article titled "purchase of gold from South Africa". But here is an alt anyway.--v/r - TP 13:59, 4 November 2024 (UTC)
ALT1 ... that Ngiam Tong Dow negotiated Singapore's first and largest purchase of gold from South Africa in 1968 by comparing two halves of a United States one-dollar bill?
ALT1 is good to go. Nobody would reasonably infer that a link saying "purchase of gold from South Africa was completed" would lead to a page about a Singaporean civil servant, so ALT0 is not fine, per WP:EGG. Kimikel (talk) 23:01, 4 November 2024 (UTC)
You're just going to skim over the fact that you accused me of lazily not verifying the original hook without checking the article's history?--v/r - TP 01:46, 5 November 2024 (UTC)
I did not "accuse" of you of anything. I simply noted that the article and the hook did not match, which is a requirement for DYK. Get over yourself. Kimikel (talk) 02:41, 6 November 2024 (UTC)
Because it had been changed after the review. Geeze, some people--v/r - TP 02:41, 7 November 2024 (UTC)
@BenTanXiaoMing and TParis: I wouldn't call an autobiography a reliable source for a claim like this, unless it was clear someone independently fact-checked and verified it. theleekycauldron (talk • she/her) 04:29, 8 November 2024 (UTC)
@Theleekycauldron: Thanks for highlighting the issue! I managed to find a few more sources to support the claim. Added it to the article. BenTanXiaoMing (talk) 07:45, 9 November 2024 (UTC)
@Launchballer and BenTanXiaoMing: I think the best source for the claim would be Bold Vision: The Untold Story of Singapore’s Reserves and Its Sovereign Wealth Fund, by Freddy Orchard? It's what the AFR source is quoting. theleekycauldron (talk • she/her) 08:44, 18 November 2024 (UTC)
v/r - TP 15:02, 24 October 2024 (UTC)
@BenTanXiaoMing: @TParis: This hook violates WP:EGG, and the claim that it is/was the "largest" purchase is never mentioned in the article, just that it was the first. A new hook is needed. Kimikel (talk) 03:09, 4 November 2024 (UTC)
ALT1 is good to go. Nobody would reasonably infer that a link saying "purchase of gold from South Africa was completed" would lead to a page about a Singaporean civil servant, so ALT0 is not fine, per WP:EGG. Kimikel (talk) 23:01, 4 November 2024 (UTC)
I wouldn't call an autobiography a reliable source for a claim like this, unless it was clear someone independently fact-checked and verified it. theleekycauldron (talk • she/her) 04:29, 8 November 2024 (UTC)
