Fake nuggets at the office today

[Tuolumne]

sometimes its fun doing armchair prospecting at my office and I just had a couple come in to evaluate a nugget that had been passed down from her grandfather who always kept it safe and hidden until his passing. So late 1800's pick up. They recently attached a bail loop few years ago for a chain to go through.

I was prepared to buy the piece for my collection but I absolutely hate when people mess up a perfect nugget with jewelry attachment. Those nugs with attachments have a habit of turning out fake so maybe I just hate those because of past experience.

I felt it, something didnt feel right with the gravity, not at heavy as it should. I had my doubts and Pet Peeves aside it looked like it was in some quartz matrix and with the loop I could see the nooks and crannies. Then I saw a file mark where a previous pawn shop did a mark and acid test and gave them low ball offer.

Took it to the XRF and it only one second out of the ten second blast for the atoms to be ionized and fall back into their regular orbits and for me to reveal the truth and break their hearts.

I said "Bad News, its a exact match"

They said "Gold?"

"No" I said, " its exact match for leaded brass! only a 1-3% gold plate".

I pulled a few nuggets out from my personal stash and showed them what I wish it would read out more like on the XRF report

They were disappointed to say the least....

So now it is a conspiracy and they were debating. They had no idea how grandpa came into the nuggets possession. Did grandpa get ripped off from really good fake he bough it the late 1800s or was the evil uncle who had the nuggets for 3 weeks while they attached the bail for jewelry? He could have swiped it out, they had no evidence or past pictures to keep records. Maybe the jewelry guy swiped it out? There was a breakdown in the nugget oversight when the grandfather passed.


Usually I get people with fake gold chains or fake Perth mint bars but this time the nugget just didn't pan out...

Now honestly, from my crappy iphone pics, can you tell its real or not? If anyone wants a XRF of their nuggets, placer, ore samples, or buttons- I would give you a blast for free at my bullion office in cupertino. I will continue to post fake nugs as I come across them......

 

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[IMAUDIGGER]

Here is a good one. If it were not for the weight it would be difficult to tell by appearance

Gold dipped copper nugget. Fooled a few people.

 

[rodoconnor]

Way to go Todd

 

[SandomingoJim]

I've got a couple of gold plated copper nuggets that I bought years ago. It will sure get some people going for a while.

 

[rodoconnor]

A friend spiked my dredge with a bronze nugget. It should have weighed in at about 4 ozs. It didn't quite meet the specific gravity requirement. It got the heart pumping pretty good for a minute or 2 or 3 or4

 

[SandomingoJim]

Wow! If I saw a four ounce nugget in the sluice box I would have probably fell face first right in it. LOL I bet your buddy had a good laugh.

 

[Tuolumne]

salting a dredge with fake nugget, thats a low blow!

Here is what I usually get, this gold is from the Bear and American river dredged over 50 years ago. Miners buttons and Lots of garnets too.....It came in today and took a while to clean and test up. Each vile was from a different portion of the rivers, each dated and yes they gave me the maps of each spot, cool ladies. I have yet to gold the Bear....... some was really chunky, 3-5 grams, some 100 mesh. He had a small vile of black sands and 1/10 full mircon gold from Half moon bay beach where the cliffs are near Poplar ave, that impressed me most.....thats the only spot Im letting you guys in on ha ha ha, who needs paper claiming when you can armchair prospect at the office ?

 

[rodoconnor]

A lot of guys had a pretty good laugh. 2 weeks later a scored a 9.1 ouncer. He who laughs last..

 

[cyberdan]

A lot of guys had a pretty good laugh. 2 weeks later a scored a 9.1 ouncer. He who laughs last..

and no photo?

 

[G.I.B.]

I have a couple of watercolor paintings and a few silver coins that my grandpa took in payment for something during the depression.

The silver was real, and the watercolor paintings are worth about $600 each now.

I'll never sell them, they hang over my desk as a remembrance.

Lot's of trading went on during the rough times. Some with real stuff, some with fakes. People did what they had to do to survive. Perhaps your grandpa accepted the nuggets as payment for something. He may have known they were fake and took them anyhow, just being a great guy in a terrible time.

That's my thought-

 

[Tuolumne]

The 80 year old lady was selling the dredged placer today was hoarded by her husband and he never sold any, made some buttons but never sold either.

I'm just like her husband and I can never seeing myself sell my own digs... So will my wife sell all my stash after I pass?

I'm going to set up a dynasty trust and each new child from future generations get leaked out a ounce at 18....that way someone will appreciate it Lol

 

[G.I.B.]

So will my wife sell all my stash after I pass?

I hope so, and if she's mad at you we may get it for 50% off...

Leave a couple of girlfriend photos laying around. We'd all appreciate the discount.

 

[enamel7]

That doesn't even look close to real.

 

[Hoser John]

TT a Living Trust works righteously as your word is law. AND then all you own is 100% protected against all lawsuits,even for 20 years after you pass as a long wait and poof everything is gone by then if done right-Luv it- Back in the late 90s we had a yahoo up here in cottonwood who flooded the market with plated junk till he did the right person wrong and he suddenly vanished from the planet, all his stuff remained but poof like a fart in the wind gone gone gone....John

 

[IMAUDIGGER]

When you say "test up", are you testing the placer gold to compensate for percentage of gold content.

 

[Tuolumne]

When you say "test up", are you testing the placer gold to compensate for percentage of gold content.

in my office everything that comes in is guilty until proven innocent from conductivity test, sonograms, xrf, and even acid or gravity if your traditional archimedes type.

But even though the xrf only goes in a micron at a time, its very accurate. If its flat river blasted alluvial placer thats golden its usually homogenous and test near same on both sides, some of it was crystalline and out of river high banked that had purple color and arsenic in it.....I had a half vile that looked coated in merc but it was hard and more platinum looking so I xrf it and found very interesting results below, Ga and Ge where was that guy dredging? these details were lost when he passed away so keep notes of your interesting xrf terroir of our local gold ....

The miners buttons and the 3 ounce bar that his wife was selling was really pure- usually the miners dont use the right flux or borax mix and the heavies will settle to the bottom and the top will have the lighter elements and less gold content, but this guy had the proper melt and the buttons and bars were 97% with just silver additional, it was a good job for sure, wish I could have asked him about his set up......

knowing the elements and its alloys helps when fake stuff comes the door. the XRF will help with that. For bullion where the xrf fails the conductivity and sonogram come in but if you have a nugget unless you fire assay or melt it down its just conjecture backed with topical analysis of the outside of the target. So take a few blast and settle on the difference and move on to the next vile....

When I studied diamonds we looked at real diamonds and only during the last day did they bring out the fake and synthetics and its easy to eyeball a fake. If its red flaged for any reason, then i file away on the suspect fake and re test, like jewelry gold filled.... but to file a nug is very taboo here and if you damage a perfect specimen, consequences in this life and the next are severe and you will not find any more real nuggets- nugget karma hardcore, dont bail your nuggets lol!!!

 

[deserdog]

I knew an older electrician who was also an avid fisherman.We did a thing called cad-welding, whcih was used to weld big cables. Anyway, sometimes the molds would leak a little molten metal.Sherm would save the good sized ones that looked like nuggets. And when he would be fishing, he would drop the 'nuggets" in the stream were he knew another fisherman would see it. then he wuld move on a little and just watch. On more then one occasion, he would see a firsherman find the :nuggets", grab them, look aroudn and take off!

 

[mofugly13]

I knew an older electrician who was also an avid fisherman.We did a thing called cad-welding, whcih was used to weld big cables. Anyway, sometimes the molds would leak a little molten metal.Sherm would save the good sized ones that looked like nuggets. And when he would be fishing, he would drop the 'nuggets" in the stream were he knew another fisherman would see it. then he wuld move on a little and just watch. On more then one occasion, he would see a firsherman find the :nuggets", grab them, look aroudn and take off!

We do a lot of cad welding, and this is spot on, sometimes the leaked metal looks very nugget-like. The color can be almost spot on as well depending on the temperature the moltem metal was at before cooling. Here's a pretty good example of a 'nugget' from a leaky mold. The color is off, but other than that....if you saw this sitting on the bottom of a stream bed in gold country...

 

[IMAUDIGGER]

in my office everything that comes in is guilty until proven innocent from conductivity test, sonograms, xrf, and even acid or gravity if your traditional archimedes type.

Just curious - some places try to discount what they will pay for gold nuggets based on the gold content, which as you know varies from area to area.

In my mind - nuggets are special - especially those lunkers the old timers got doing the larger scale placer mining.
Those are more difficult to come by these days.
Not sure how many shoe boxes and cigar boxes full of nuggets are sitting around any more.

 

[Hoser John]

I prefer spectrographic analysis, gas chromagraph or microderm whenever possible but specific gravity is one sweet ez cheap method as thick plating can fool some like a simple streak test to be sure. I mine my gold so no problems..John