ceramic or clay cups stamped 20 grms. from mining community

[chong2]

yesterday, the only day of my moving vacation i went to a place i have been wanting to go to for a long time for bottles. a small old mining town that did it all, gold, silver ,copper, turquoise. when i finally got to the place i was going i probed for about 5 min and hit a nice unembossed amethyst whiskey. after i dug it i looked over and saw few bases of what appears to be ceramic cups. i picked them up and dug a wee bit and found lots of these things. and a whole half of one of the cups. also i found some matter that is pretty heavy and sits perfectly into these cup things. i broke out my MD and swooped it but no metal content. i had to leave cause there was a freak winter rain and i had only a tee shirt on.when i got home they read BATTERSEA WORKS ENGLAND 20GRMS. my theory is they were used to essay or something and they had to break the cups to remove the matter inside. so what the heck are they? i likem whatever they are and am going back in a few days to get alot more. should i take my MD and check this site out dumb question, i should always take and detect i have been without the net and am at my sisters house, no time to research these, any help will be awesome everyone!!! thanks

[Jeffro]

Your guess was dead on, those are crucibles.

[TreasureTales]

Yes, indeed. Assay crucibles used in furnaces to reduce the ore samples to check for precious metal content. The clay in England was pure and therefore good for making assay crucibles. The little round inserts were placed in the bottom of the crucibles. On occassion you can find some of the ore samples, with some precious metal content. By all means, take your detector with you and sweep the area. You might find coins, relics, all sorts of interesting things. Good Luck.

[flip]

I found enough of those to fill a 5 gal. bucket at a dump in Cripple Creek back in the 70's. lotsa good bottles too.

[chong2]

i knew i was close so will the ore sample be about the size of the cup? and what does the bottom show 20 grms? is that the weight of the insert? so they did break these to remove the sample also right? thanks all

[TreasureTales]

The ore sample would be small enough to fit inside the cup. I found several crucibles intact in 2005 and noticed that some of the material inside would fill about half the cup and others had material that nearly filled the cup. The inserts (I've forgotten the technical name for them) may have been broken in the process and therefore discarded, hence you found them broken up. Or they may have been broken through the years--after abandonment. The "20 grams" marking indicates the amound of lead the clay of the crucible will absorb. I sold several of the crucibles I found for $5.00 apiece to antique dealers, who in turn sold them to collectors. The ones I sold were intact, however.

Here's a link to the process of assaying, it's much better at explaining things than I am.

http://www.mine-engineer.com/mining/assay2.htm

[chong2]

great,thanks for the link. well now i understand and will be digging for some whole cups. either way value or not has great history behind them