can anyone help identify this?

[DannyBeattie]

HI ALL, I found this piece of silver in my back garden using a MD-3010II detector, it was about a foot down among the roots of a 6 metre bottlebrush tree. I tested the piece with a neodymium magnet and there is no attraction what so ever and should mention it was completely rock encrusted when it came out of the ground. I have a theory it may have been a contraband trade ingot from the 17th century Spanish fleet, I could be completely wrong, so I would love to hear your opinions.

Information that may help- I live in a semi rural area in Perth Western Australia.

Unfortunately I hit the piece a few times with an axe which resulted in the impact lines you can clearly see.

 

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[Tom_in_CA]

Maybe it's not silver ? Could just be slag of some other shiny metal variety ?

 

[DannyBeattie]

There's a chance it could be aluminum, its non magnetic so no iron in the mix, the detectors sensors indicating silver and its prove accurate so far. I'll leave an update when I test it.

 

[against the wind]

You can't damage that piece any more than it is already damaged.
Put that chunk of unknown metal in bleach. If it tarnishes quickly,, it just might be silver.

 

[DannyBeattie]

I agree, thanks for the tip.

 

[smokeythecat]

You can also do a specific gravity test. On a piece that small, it should not be hard. Google it for the right set up.

 

[DannyBeattie]

I watched a video, makes me think my ingot is on the light side for its size, I'm going to see if the local pawn shop can perform an acid test on it to get a more accurate id

 

[Tom_in_CA]

.... the detectors sensors indicating silver ...

Detector TID gauges and graphs only measure conductivity. Not composition. Yes it uses broad categories like "silver" or "gold" or "aluminum", or "iron", etc... But those are based on coin sized objects.

Example: take a fingernail sized snippet of aluminum can (or just use the tab), and wave it : It's reads low, like tab or nickel or whatever. Right ? Now wave an entire aluminum can in front of your coil. Notice it reads up at dime or quarter now. Right ? Well what changed ? It's still the same material: "Aluminum". Notice that only the size has changed.

Thus many metals can read in the "silver" range on TID. Molten aluminum cans (thrown on campfires) can be reduced to nuggets that can read very high (ie.: an entire aluminum can, when melted down, is the size of a pecan or walnut now). Naturally the weight would give it away as being aluminum and not something else.

Let's hope yours is silver though.

 

[ARC]

Aluminum... IMO.

 

[DannyBeattie]

I have to admit I'm new to metal detecting, though finding all this info useful. Thanks

 

[Rodbuster209]

Aluminum... IMO.

That’s what I was going to guess, Aluminum slag.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

I have to admit I'm new to metal detecting, though finding all this info useful. Thanks

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