I cannt believe what I found on my 1st day!

[D-Tek]

I cann't believe what I found on my 1st day!

12/07/2012 Hello everyone. About seven years ago, I purchased my first metal detector. It was a toy version I picked up at yard sale for my kids. We used it in our back yard and found that it worked and was a lot of fun. I always wanted to make metal detecting my hobby but, never got to it. I now have the time and last month I went and purchased a new one for myself and on October 2, 2012 I finally started. I couldn't believe what I found on my very first day! These Items look to be made of some type of molded metal, maybe lead or aluminum. I have more items to post but I didn't have the time so I'm posting these first. Item#121002-1 Looks like a Horse's head, #121002-2 Looks like a Dolphin, #121002-3 Looks like a Eagle head. If anyone has any idea what these are and what kind of metal they are please inform, thanks.

 

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[stevemc]

Lead is soft and heavy, aluminum is very light. Gold and silver are heavy. Gold is yellow and silver is silver, gold doesnt corrode, copper, bronze, brass all have copper in them and corrode green. Silver usually corrodes black, gold does not corrode. Hard to say what you have, pics make it look gold, but some look silver. Was this found where silver could be found? Or is it a dump site? River? Let us know. I am sure we can help. Welcome!

 

[Bunk]

Those look like nuggets to me. Does your area have a history gold nuggets?
Bunk

 

[Terry Soloman]

What's wrong with this picture? Who is tugging on my leg here?

 

[Hoppus]

What's wrong with this picture? Who is tugging on my leg here?

the only thing i see wrong with this story is a "rookie" with an inventory system for the first three things he finds. And the "they look like animals" thing when they could definitely be of some value. However there are people that are that meticulous and silly (my wife being one of them)....

The formations, coloring, and lack of corrosion as mentioned before by steve definitely points towards gold...

My personal opinion is that you should go get yourself a graduated cylinder and a decent jewelers scale for a little money. Note the mass of the nugget in grams using your scale. Fill the beaker with enough distilled water so that your metal will be completely submerged. Note the displacement in milliliters before you place the material in the beaker and after. 1 milliliter = 1 cubic centimeter. Now you will want to take the mass in grams and divide it by the volume in cubic centimeters. This will give you the density of your material. Divide this newly found density by the density of your distilled water at room temperature which is about .998 grams per cubic centimeter. This will give you the true specific gravity of your material. Take your number and compare it to this list of materials and you should have a very good idea of what you are dealing with. If they are gold, get back out there immediately haha.

The person is one of two "people". Either he is trolling for a response such as Soloman's or is genuinely looking for information. Give him the information if you want but don't bite on the possible b.s....that's the last thing this forum needs anymore of...

 

[LuckyThirteen08]

Are these nuggets actually this color by eye sight or is it a camera reflection/reaction? Ive seen chunks of lead show up golden when photographed,Just a question. But a few of those pictures make me think gold buttons from scrap gold by a home refiner.

 

[Terry Soloman]

the only thing i see wrong with this story is a "rookie" with an inventory system for the first three things he finds. And the "they look like animals" thing when they could definitely be of some value. However there are people that are that meticulous and silly (my wife being one of them)....

The formations, coloring, and lack of corrosion as mentioned before by steve definitely points towards gold...

My personal opinion is that you should go get yourself a graduated cylinder and a decent jewelers scale for a little money. Note the mass of the nugget in grams using your scale. Fill the beaker with enough distilled water so that your metal will be completely submerged. Note the displacement in milliliters before you place the material in the beaker and after. 1 milliliter = 1 cubic centimeter. Now you will want to take the mass in grams and divide it by the volume in cubic centimeters. This will give you the density of your material. Divide this newly found density by the density of your distilled water at room temperature which is about .998 grams per cubic centimeter. This will give you the true specific gravity of your material. Take your number and compare it to this list of materials and you should have a very good idea of what you are dealing with. If they are gold, get back out there immediately haha.

The person is one of two "people". Either he is trolling for a response such as Soloman's or is genuinely looking for information. Give him the information if you want but don't bite on the possible b.s....that's the last thing this forum needs anymore of...

Or you could just go to any local jeweler and have them to a "scratch test" free of charge..

 

[Hoppus]

Or you could just go to any local jeweler and have them to a "scratch test" free of charge..

That's all well and good for jewelry since you pretty much need to use chemicals, but you're just being lazy at the point where you are walking in and asking someone to do something for free that you could easily do on your own.

 

[D-Tek]

The pictures I posted look more yellow than what they actually are. I apologize for that, my digital camera is older and has its share of abuse and the day I took the pictures and posted then on this website was about around 2:00am and I wanted to get them in. I will check the settings on my camera. Regarding your reply... I found these pieces at the beach near in my area. I first I thought they were lead because of the dull-dark gray color and had no shine. I polished one of the pieces with metal polisher and a soft cloth and I couldn't believe how different it looked now! From the color that is exposed, clean shinny metal, and because they are also very light in weight, I think they might be either silver or aluminum . Thank you for your help, reply and your warm welcome.

 

[D-Tek]

I don't really now the gold history of my area, but thanks for the tip, I will do some research.
The pictures I posted look more yellow than what they actually are. I apologize for that, my digital camera is older and has its share of abuse and the day I took the pictures and posted then on this website was about around 2:00am and I wanted to get them in. I will check the settings on my camera. Regarding your reply... I found these pieces at the beach near in my area. I first I thought they were lead because of the dull-dark gray color and had no shine. I polished one of the pieces with metal polisher and a soft cloth and I couldn't believe how different it looked now! From the color that is exposed, clean shinny metal, and because they are also very light in weight, I think they might be either silver or aluminum . Thank you for your help, and your reply.

 

[D-Tek]

Thank you all for your replies. I’m really looking for information . Even though I am new to metal detecting, I take this new hobby very serious and because after spending hours looking at these new founded pieces and noticing that most of these pieces have some king of odd shapes that resemble animals, birds, or the face of a human. I personally think they might have some historical value. So I started the inventory system. That's what I see that they do in the movies. lol. My digital camera is older and had its share of abuse. I assure you. I apologized for the way the pictures came out, the background is supposed to be white, when uploaded them but it was already late and I wanted to get the pictures in. I will check the camera setting. I will try to post new pics. Thank you all.

 

[Calvin.Coin]

The gold tint added a bit of excitement! The pic of 02-3 does resemble a natural nugget of some sort. The way that it is hammered flat suggests softness but you say it is light so that detracts from it being lead. Aluminum, I think is more brittle.

The specific gravity lesson provided by Hoppus was a good one and would solve this quick, I'm archiving it locally for when I have need.

peace,
cc