First find - is it Gold?

[ethought]

Hi All -

First time poster.

Just got my first metal detector today (Gold Bug 2) and went up to the local prospecting fields with a friend.

We found a small patch which had the following pieces (see photo).

If I shine a light on them they do look yellow / gold but in normal light they only look a very dull gold color and in some parts almost like dull silver. The pieces are very jagged, almost molten looking.





They were found near old gold mines around large piles of quartz the old timers had put there I think.

Could it be low quality gold or something else?

 

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[NuggetN8]

That is some nice looking gold!!!! Wish I could find stuff like that it's really cool looking. Most of the gold I ever find is rounded off because I find it in creeks =/ . But gold is gold I guess.

 

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[Jeff Harris]

You need to pound that site like a fat man at an all you can eat buffet.

 

[ethought]

Hi Ethought, Lannys advice about the streak test is good - all the info you need for it is on line - also try a local jeweller, he should be able to do an acid test.
To my eye what you have there looks like soldering and brazing splatter, if so it will be bronze, lead and tin alloys. It could also be gold melt splatter from where someone spilled gold out of a crucible or similar when doing a melt. They would have been keen to cover up the mess before the boss found out.
Either way keep us posted. Nuggy

Nuggy - I reckon you are right. I did a streak test and it came out grey. After all that I dont think it is gold - but still no closer to knowing exactly what it is. I think your theory could be spot on though.

Also, since then I have found 100% actual real gold and it looks totally different.

Live and learn I guess.

 

[trinityau]

Hello all, this line is from earlier in the thread, "Alto a few incidental contacts is not much of a threat." Mercury is a heavy metal, it can be absorbed into the body quickly. There are no significant effects immediately but mercury builds to a certain level in each human body then the effects become clear. Do you know how much your body can tolerate? They have done autopsies and found dangerous levels of mercury poisoning at fingertips of some bodies, they can only surmise that it was from that person putting mercury on a coin when he or she was young or playing with a thermometer and having it break. Some of these studies have also shown extreme bone cancer starting right at the finger tips where the mercury poisoning was and moving on. These of course are just studies but they are pretty exhaustive and provide many volumes of interesting reading. I would avoid any contact no matter how short. It has been proven deadly in the long run. TRINITYAU/RAYMILLS