treasure to me

[dredgernaut]

i dug this out of high and dry gravel bar , serious hard pack , I'm trying to figure out the age , do you have a guess , funny thing is , within a 3 foot radius and 6 inches or so deeper i pulled out about 5 grams , maybe 5 buckets of material and the pick was packed in right on top of pocket , I'm thinking it all washed in there together during big water, or someone quit a minute to early , it could of been the next pan

 

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[IMAUDIGGER]

The older pick heads were stamped with a name. Might be able to date it from that.

 

[Prospector70]

Nice concretion there, I hear you can knock that rust off of there an mortar and pestle the rust and such, and may find gold there as well. I have a few pieces of metal concretions in my garage, just waiting till I have enough to make it worthwhile (or winter lol).

 

[bug]

Hit it with the wire wheel. Ive got a few that looked like that and came out super clean removing the rot, and you can see the blacksmiths mark.

 

[KevinInColorado]

Hit it with the wire wheel. Ive got a few that looked like that and came out super clean removing the rot, and you can see the blacksmiths mark.

Or just soak it (outside!) in hot tub filter cleaner (sulphuric acid based) for a week. Much more gentle than a wire wheel if you have the patience

Oh and yes, be sure to pan the crud that falls off of there. Likely to be gold. I've done this and found gold, fun!

 

[IMAUDIGGER]

Not something most people think about doing...take a look at the business end with a magnifying glass.
I have one somewhere that has gold embedded into it. That was kind of cool.

 

[dredgernaut]

I like the look of history , I think I will leave it be , not enough gold in that corrosion to be worth undoing it , but thanks for the ideas , I'm gonna just tell everyone its from 1800s , and I found the miner too , lol