Are we missing something?

boris

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Dec 17, 2011
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When we think of precious metal ie gold and silver, are we finding palladium or even rhodium too? How would we know as jeweler's seem concerned with the first two and platinum. The later I was always told is used in those expensive catalytic converters. Now I found Volvo has been using Palladium and it is a valuable metal. It seems to look like silver or melted beer cans? I would appreciate your thoughts as this subject has never been covered in my decades with TNet, thank you for any knowledge of these other valuable metals. HH Boris:4leafclover:
 

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63bkpkr

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Boris,
Interesting question! I will be looking forward to some responses though I suspect these more exotic rare earth metals are found in other parts of the world..................63bkpkr
 

Terry Soloman

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Unless it is in nugget form, or jewelry, the question is moot. If there is a pendent, ring, or bracelet made from "palladium or even rhodium," lost on a beach, it will have maker's marks, and probably ice, because it would be Uber rare - and modern. Of course, this is just my opinion and probably has no bearing on reality whatsoever.
 

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boris

boris

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Dec 17, 2011
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I think Napoleon valued aluminum more that gold? In the early 1800s, and my beach is much older, ie arrowheads and Kidd legends as my 11th great grandfather Lt. Jonathan Delano was at his trial in Boston. He lived 1647-1720 and my granpa told me amazing stories about the Pilgrims and their rock, He moved it when it broke and had a piece of it. Richard Warren was the 12th great granpa ! 1592-1628, They came here from all over the shipping areas.
 

ron lord

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Palladium looks like SS but is worth a lot more, I found 2 Palladium ring this passed year. Rhodium, look into a mirror, This is what rhodium look like. Have you ever found a 14kt white Gold ring and it shines like a mirror, it has a rhodium finish. 5 years ago rhodium was selling at $10,000 an Oz., today not so much. Catalytic converters has Palladium and Plat. but it's to hard to remove for what it is worth.
 

firemac

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boris, good history on your family, spot on palladium is 698 now and rhodium is 1600ish range, last few years or so there was a big rash of converter thefts here in north texas
 

dewcon4414

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Like Ron i got two of those PD rings..... both were bands. Both these were marked. If they arent marked i dont no how u could tell. I had a jeweler work on one of my white gold rings and he used RD for a coating also like Ron said.

Dew
 

Sir Gala Clad

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Good question Boris:

Thanx for the reply Dewcon, I have edited below earlier reply to clarify.
Hopefully, it will now makes sense:

I treasure hunt with an Excalibur II 1000 in the Disc mode with the discriminator set at 1, at the highest comfortable volume level, threshold barely audible, using auto sensitivity when I am doing a zig zag pattern between the High and Low Tide lines or when doing a grid pattern perpendicular to the beach. I prefer to manually tune when detecting parallel to the beach or when the detector becomes unstable.


I have found a lot of slag (molten metal) on the beach and have no idea what it is, except I know it is not ferrous, as it I cannot pick it up with a magnet. To date, I have considered it annoying junk, which may be a mistake as I have been throwing it away at the end of each hunt.

Also, theese small pieces of non ferrous metal makes it difficult to rapidly cherry pick small coins and rings (hope springs eternal) as I have to rotate my search coil 90 degrees to determine that the target is round.
 

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Detector Wars

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Nov 26, 2008
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Palladium looks like SS but is worth a lot more, I found 2 Palladium ring this passed year. Rhodium, look into a mirror, This is what rhodium look like. Have you ever found a 14kt white Gold ring and it shines like a mirror, it has a rhodium finish. 5 years ago rhodium was selling at $10,000 an Oz., today not so much. Catalytic converters has Palladium and Plat. but it's to hard to remove for what it is worth.

Isn't one of them the most reflective metal there is? Must be Rhodium?
 

dewcon4414

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SGC.... you confused me. That IS metal yet cant be picked up...... BUT it interfers with your cherry picking, HOW? Had you said its a pain because its a high tone, id say Aluminum all day long. Are you running in AM..... possible you have it disc out or CAN disc/notch it out on your detector.

Dew
 

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boris

boris

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I think he meant a magnet? {sgc} Platinum nuggets look like melted beer cans but some nuggets here have roman numerals and "P" and could be very old ie Before aluminum became cheap and common? Silver does turn black with great age?
 

Beach Papa

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I just had my wife's "family heirloom, my grandmother's" 1 ct. engagement ring reshanked. The band was thin to begin with, but seemed to be getting thinner with age, it is now about 100 years old. The ring is Palladium. the jeweler said Palladium is about 15% more durable than Platinum, which is more durable than gold, and the thin shank on the ring would last many more years. I had it replaced anyway just because it felt thin to her. Jeweler said Palladium was a common metal to use in rings around 1900, not so much so today although it might come back into vogue with the price of gold. The ring looks just like Platinum to me.
 

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