Actually it was the other day, one of my coolest finds ever

[smokeythecat]

But alas, not worth much of anything. I went to a 1740's metal foundry about 60 miles from where I live in the middle of nowhere. Found a few 18th century buttons, a ladies copper engraved pin and a brass wedding ring, plus some lead ingots which were given to Revolutionary War soldiers to make their own musket balls.

The find of the day was a silver hunk of apparently smelted metal. It was too light for lead or high carat gold. Too light for magnesium, aluminum, bismuth, or beryllium. Had a specific gravity of 6.4. Not magnetic but as it wasn't tarnished I thought an amalgam (mix) of silver and something else.

I had it professionally analyzed. It was 62% TIN and 38% iron! Well, tin was not mined in the US until it was discovered in 1880! This hunk of tin would have come from Cornwall, England, by the time of the Revolution. If you remember history, one of the reasons we had the revolution was the crown would not let us mine our own minerals. So for the historian in me, it's really cool.

 

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[billb]

Congratulations Smokey
Thanks for sharing

 

[dognose]

that is interesting.
I was not aware of that particular angle.

hopefully future finds could be off the charts.

 

[ModernMiner]

That’s pretty cool Smokey. 👍
I love all the history that I learn on this site. Thanks for the post.
I remember posting many years ago a funky looking piece of what I found out was slag. It was shiny and had holes in it like Swiss cheese. I thought I had found a meteorite. 😀
-MM-

 

[Midden-marauder]

But alas, not worth much of anything. I went to a 1740's metal foundry about 60 miles from where I live in the middle of nowhere. Found a few 18th century buttons, a ladies copper engraved pin and a brass wedding ring, plus some lead ingots which were given to Revolutionary War soldiers to make their own musket balls.

The find of the day was a silver hunk of apparently smelted metal. It was too light for lead or high carat gold. Too light for magnesium, aluminum, bismuth, or beryllium. Had a specific gravity of 6.4. Not magnetic but as it wasn't tarnished I thought an amalgam (mix) of silver and something else.

I had it professionally analyzed. It was 62% TIN and 38% iron! Well, tin was not mined in the US until it was discovered in 1880! This hunk of tin would have come from Cornwall, England, by the time of the Revolution. If you remember history, one of the reasons we had the revolution was the crown would not let us mine our own minerals. So for the historian in me, it's really cool.

Yeah, I've found similar "hot rocks" at a local bottle landfill from the 20s-40s. Too light to be pure iron. They only register weakly with the detector and if I hold them right up to the tip of my pro find 40 the ferrous discriminator goes off. Blackish with metallic flecks, probably of similar composition. I've collected a few to examine them but I think you just may have provided me with a clue as to what they actually are. The ground at the landfill is full of them making metal detection at that site essentially impossible.

 

[smokeythecat]

Thanks guys. I'm sure you've all heard the phrase "tin plated dictator". Back in the day tin was used to coat steel, especially thin steel like mugs and cans (now made of aluminum) to keep them from rusting. But tin wasn't discovered here until 1880.