Crusted NW Beach Gold...probably not..

[mcmurphi]

Got out on a road trip a few days ago to an old tucked away saltwater beach and rescued this keeper amongst the nails. It is very mineralized. I have been cleaning it with dish soap and at tooth brush for a couple of days now just hoping to get a glimpse of some detail. I was using my cz-21 with the sensitivity cranked. With that setting where I was, it was not too bad but still getting the extra chirps to fight through. I was almost done for the day and I got a nice soft repeatable mid tone and I thought to myself, go ahead and dig, at least it's not a iron. It was a good 8 inches down.
I have found a few gold rings over the years but this one for sure is one of the oldest I have recovered in saltwater. Certainly the most crusted. I'm anxious to see just what she looks like. Open to suggestions for restoration if you have some. I have been searching around the net and not much on cleaning heavy mineralized gold.

mcmurphi

[North Florida Beach Hunter]

It's always a good thing to find a ring. It sure beats finding pulltabs and bottletops like I do. As far as I know though, gold should not get crusted up like that, even on a highly mineralized beach. I could be wrong. It wouldn't be the first time.
Happy hunting.........

[Sandman]

It's always a good thing to find a ring. It sure beats finding pulltabs and bottletops like I do. As far as I know though, gold should not get crusted up like that, even on a highly mineralized beach. I could be wrong. It wouldn't be the first time.
Happy hunting.........

I have never had any gold rings encrusted like that. Silver ones yeah.

[Smoogle]

would it be the alloys mixed with the gold reacting?

[goodmore]

Electrolysis is the way to clean stuff like that. I bet it is silver too.

[mcmurphi]

Thanks for the comments and advise on this one. I will post an updated photo after electrolysis etc.
Mcmurphi

[petersra]

One of the beaches I have hunted contains quite a few pieces of copper flashing and copper nails. Perhaps from hurricane roof damage. I haven't taken photos of the scrap copper metal, but it looks exactly like the rings with a blue-green patina. Your rings are likely silver or gold plated copper with all the silver or gold worn off long ago. Nice to find a ring now and again, even if the gold is worn off. HH, Ralph

[stevemc]

Silver, copper and gold is not affected by muratic acid, which you could clean it with if that is what it is, but it seems to be something like bronze. Bronze really doesnt get affected by acid, but the surface will turn copper, a quick buff will bring back the bronze color, as the zinc is eaten away on the surface by the acid. Gold really doesnt get corrosion, but if very low alloy it could I suppose. Silver is usually black corrosion, unless alloyed with copper, like many old Spanish cobs, and they were black or green corrosion. Maybe try 50/50 water and muratic acid. Rinse well after a few minutes and if it needs more, do it again. You can buy muratic acid in pool stores. Rinse well, and use eye protection, and do it outside. Fumes. If done wrong electroysis can destroy things. Try the acid first. If it is pot metal, it will start really fizzing with acid, if so take it out and rinse it, and check it out to see if it was just the corrosion or the cheap metal. I get copper pennies that get all green if under sea and sand for a few years. Or you could tumble it with some sand, water and pebbles in a rock tumbler if you have one. Do it for 1/2 an hour and check it out. I do that when I get a pile of greenies, and leave them in all day, and they come out looking like new. Dont use carbide grit though, just sand and small pebbles. Here is a picture of a gold escudo, 1654 and it just came out of the saltwater, my hand is still wet. This is 350 years in saltwater, no corrosion.

[BOXING63]

wtg very nice

[Lorrain.]

Those are interesting photos, Mcmurphi.

I would try electrolysis on the ring.. it looks most likely to be silver, but I could be wrong.

Here is a pic of a very encrusted 10K gold ring that I had found a couple of years ago...thought it was junk and was ready to scrap it until I took a closer look and thought "maybe"

After electrolysis, I could see the gold and the 10K marking / center diamond .

Sorry I don't have a pic of the ring cleaned and shined.

Lorraine

[CASPER-2]

Like Lorraine - I have found 10 K rings that are caked in green - after electrolosis they come out pretty good
the reason a spanish gold coin never has corrosion - is they are like 23 K gold or around that
10k that has alot of brass as the other alloy will turn in saltwater
I have found gold rings that have silver in them turn black

[stevemc]

Yes, I figured that a low alloy gold would corrode somewhat. Rose gold uses copper to make it red, and I am sure it would get green. Electrolysis or acid would work on that. Be careful with either one.

[TORRERO]

I would have to believe these to be heavy copper w/silver plating maybe and they have been there
a long long time.
But that is what copper looks like after years of wear and tear in salt or corrosive soil.
That said, years ago I dug an 18k Gold Chain on a beach in Spain, and I could see some gold
peeking through lots and lots of green crud... At first I could not understand why it was like this and
I was thinking maybe just gold plated....
But no indeed it was 18k..... Just that the links where they were soldered together they had used copper solder as it is stronger and holds together better that Gold, and those little tiny spots of
copper solder had corroded and grown so much that it covered the entire chain and all the links...
A vast amount just crumbled off when pulled through my fingers, and after the acid bath you could not
see where the links came together anymore....
We believe that the chain had been there maybe 50 - 60 years and only came up after a week of strong storms battered the coast....
But it taught me a lessen that most gold is put together with some form of copper solder and these
places will carrode and grow green gunk in the salt water locations.

[mcmurphi]

Ok did some frying on it and removed some stuff. She probably is not gold but rather plated gold. But the thing is it rings up as a solid 28 on my dfx so that is what is confusing. As copper, brass would be way up there around 50-80. Anyway maybe a nickel alloy of some kind. I have a friend I will take it to to get his thoughts. Here is a not so good pic of the electrolysis. Thank you everyone for your comments on this ring, I really do appreciate them all. What a wonderful resource! Thanks again, mcmurphi

[Pedrod]

I have never found gold in Salt Water.

However, I just found two rings lost around 1985 and 1989. Once you pull a Gold Ring out of the water and see how pristine they are you will never doubt whether it is gold or not. My rings were Beautiful the second I laid eyes on them. Absolutely NO corrosion. If I have any doubt the first second I see them I remind myself its JUNK!

[davidfl]

i have found two gold rings either crusted over or tarnished(stained). the first was a ring exactly like Lorain's. i found it in fresh water. the center of the onyx has a silver stud, the silver was extremely deteriorated, the gold was stained nearest the silver. the second was a 14k gold ring holding a 24k gold coin, it had a steel ring guard. this one was found in salt water. it was completely encrusted in very hard cocina, hard as concrete. the metal ring guard was entirely corroded, almost eaten away. I'm sorry i don't have pics. the point is, if gold is in close proximity to another metal it can get a crust on it. the first ring even stained the gold a black color near the silver stud. the second ring had crusted to the gold but did not effect the gold or color, just had crust on it.
the ring in the photo appears to me me to be a plated ring, hence the little glimpses of gold color, but the base metal under it has been corroded. i normally don't do any more than tumble these. if more is done, it just ruins it worse. i save them, but they are only treasure to me, mementos of my time detecting. i hope this helps some. hh david

[Lorrain.]

Hi, mcmurphi

Regarding the crusted ring that you found, and crusted 10K gold rings in general:

I just came across an "after" pic of the ring that I had found and almost junked due to its thick crusting and "junky" look ( pics posted above) after I electrolyzed and shined it up. Those 10K's that have been in the ground for a while are deceptive to the eye.

Here is a photo of the cleaned ring . I wish you the best in your next detecting adventure and look forward to your future postings.

Thank you for looking

Lorraine

[CASPER-2]

like Lorraine - I have found gold rings high in brass that have turned green - here are 2
the first is a 9k ring from Miami waters - I thought it was plated till I saw the markings inside - little electrolosis cleaned it up - the second is a 1929 class ring found in Ct. - it actually had even more crust on it when found - have found a few others over the year too - got to wonder how many have thrown gold away or in their junk ring boxes over the years cause they saw lot of green and thought they were junk or plated

[Bumpstick]

I have found several low caret rings that looked like junk when I found them.
I soaked them in acid and rinsed thoroughly. they came out with layered streaks and colors. some pitting. I buffed them and they blended into an even yellow color.
I looked up the composition of 9kt and found that it is 37.5% gold, 12.1% silver, 44.4% copper, 6% zinc
I think that high acidic water; that measure below 7.0 on the PH scale. cause the alloy metals to corrode.
In the lake I have found penny's that all the copper coating has corroded away off the zinc base.
In the salt the zinc disintegrates rapidly.