Aluminum or silver??

[Mr.Jody]

Went to the beach today,(sorry cant find the cord to camera to put pics up at this time)It was low tide, so off in the water I go,found about $2.00 in change and a nice big clump of aluminum or silver about 6-8 inches or so under the sand. It was shiny in some paces and had alot of crust built up on it.What is the best way(home remedy) to tell the difference?Its about 2 inches wide, 1/2 inch thick, about 4 1/2 inches long.It definitely has been melted.weight is...105 grams.

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Upgraded Night Vision Monocular Digital Infrared Monocular Telescope for 100% Darkness with 8X Zoom - Grab it through Amazon!

[detector dave]

silver never has a crust or build up on it. most likely you have alum from a camp fire.

 

[Casull]

silver never has a crust or build up on it.

Who told you that? It came out of saltwater. It could very well be silver.

 

[MUD(S.W.A.T)]

Yea silver can get stuff on it from the ocean, takes a long time but yea. Take it to a coinshop or pawnshop they should have a chemical tester to test it with. Sounds cool, would love to see some pictures. If it is silver it will clean up easy with electrolysis. Let us know what it is OK?

Keep @ it and HH!!

 

[Mr.Jody]

hmmm yea it definatly has been in the ocean for some time, I can tell by the crusty stuff on it..I will be making another trip to the dealer soon, if all keeps going well!! lol I will get a pic up as soon as I find my freaking cord, haha

 

[rmptr]

Silver definitely has a higher density...

Yet hard to speculate without seeing it.

Florida? It very well could be silver.

Elsewhere... chances would be it's a campfire nugget.

Hope it's silver!

rmptr

 

[Saturna]

If my math is right Silver should weigh about 170 grams per cubic inch.

2 inches wide X 1/2 inch thick X 4 1/2 inches = 4.5 CuIn

4.5 X 170 = 765 grams if Silver.


Aluminum weighs about 1/6 Silver or 27 grams per cubic inch.

4.5 X 27 = 121 grams if Aluminum

It may be a marine grade Aluminum (5000 or 6000 series) if it is in good shape despite being in saltwater.


Jay

 

[Ramapirate]

Yep, silver ain't gold and it does corrode. Seen enough pictures of stuff
from shipwreck finds to know that one. Gold on the other hand looks
like it did the day it was dropped into the ocean. Now, there could be a
karat thing with gold where 10k I guess could corrode maybe. Not real
sure about that. Since I've never found any gold on the beach or in the
water at the beach I don't really know. Sandman, where you at on this?
I'm pulling for your piece to be silver!

HH,
Ramapirate

 

[detector dave]

I have never seen silver in salt water!! I am from Michigan and silver looks clean when it comes out of the ground, if it has been in the water for a long time it will turn black. Sorry about the misunderstanding, i thaught it was found on a sandy beach in fresh water.

 

[crazyjarhead]

That mathmatical formula would solve the mystery pretty quickly

 

[Narthoniel]

Saltwater will tarnish silver in time. I am attaching a picture of a silver dollar I found in the salt for reference. As for 10k gold - it does corrode, although very slowly. I have seen 10k with spots of rust on it from the ocean.
Hope this helps!
Anthony

 

[BIGHEAD]

Silver oxidizes and turns black in salt water!! The Spanish used to make crude silver bars like what you described. But most of them had markings on them, unless they were privately owned. Who knows you could have some Spanish treasure!! Keep us posted and good luck .Bighead

 

[rmptr]

If Spanish silver did NOT have a marking on a bar there's a chance it was NOT on the manifest
and someone was smuggling it home.

I understand quite a bit of that occurred.

They were trying to avoid tax, even back then!

rmptr

 

[Casull]

They were trying to avoid tax, even back then!

Why that's unpatriotic.

 

[rmptr]