What color is your gold?

LP13

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Dec 31, 2012
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I got the idea after another post I did regarding gold and what different karat weights of gold densities were.

Where I live most of the gold I see is high karat gold, probably in the 18k to 22k range. I have heard it said around here that this high of karat weight gold is not the norm and that most native gold is lesser karat. In that post I did, I listed some of the different metals that alloy with gold, mostly silver. And although I know that royal purple gold is alloyed with aluminum, I do not know if it actually ever occurs naturally. The same with 'blue gold' which is alloyed with iron. Iron is very commonly associated with gold and I imagine that it might be alloyed ocassionally with gold, however I really don't know if it actually ever is or not in nature. Maybe it's a man-made alloy only.

It would kind of be nice to see people's gold, and the color it is. Gold alloyed with copper which is somewhat common is rose gold. So there is a whole color wheel of gold. I have some gold here that is pale yellow and is likely high in silver. It came from the Rich Hill mining district.

So my thought was for people to take a picture of some gold they have and post it along with the rough area of where it was found, to see what different colors are where in the USA.

The problem is that there are a lot of different cameras and lighting. True sunlight, incandescent lights, fluorescent, etc. So to get a true idea of the colors to compenaste for different cameras and lighting I thought it might first be good to have some standard color items that could be placed in the pictures. One example might be a Marlboro pack for the red and white, or a dollar bill for the green. Any ideas there on the color standard items? Pepsi can for the blue and red??

Here is a link to colored gold on Wikipedia.
Colored gold - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 

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Hoser John

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black from maganese or shale deposition,green from copper , silver from silver mix or nickel,red from iron on and on-John
 

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LP13

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Gold on the left is approx 22 - 24K gold (2 pieces in it were from e-gold recovery using aqua regia and are 99.999). The rest of the gold on the left is from the Vulture Mine area near Wickenburg, AZ. Gold on the right is from the Rich Hill area. Notice that it is visibly more pale. Sh****y camera. I keep swearing that I am going to get a good one some day. I haven't had it assayed yet but my bet is that it is only around 14k or so. color of gold 1.jpg
 

maipenrai

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Thats a good idea, but as you pointed out, "sh***y camera, and most of us have one just like it!! :laughing7:. But what I would like to know, is how a detector reacts to the different gold. Gold with iron cannot give the same signal as gold with copper, at least I dont think so.
 

63bkpkr

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185_8517.JPG 191_9174.JPG

The first picture the gold is on a U.S. Silver dollar, the second picture the gold in a U.S. clad dime

In both cases the gold was found out of the Sacramento area. And yes, the lighting does make a difference: room light adjusted for white balance on the half dollar, sunlight on the dime and of course the surrounding backgrounds are uniquely different..............63bkpkr
 

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Sample Pan Dan

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I like the bird shot Bkpkr.

Here's mine from today against my well scratched black truck.
 

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kazcoro

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20130413_220657.jpg Here is my lil nugg from the LSD, about ten miles east of the Vulture Mine. AZ
 

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LP13

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I know that silver, gold and copper all commonly occur together. And silver alloyed with gold is very common. Has anyone found any rose gold? I know Black Hills gold in S.D. is very colorful. I seem to recall some of it being pink. Anyone with some rose gold pics? Any pics of gold with a greenish cast to it?
 

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LP13

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Black hills gold jewelry is colored mix junk gold at a lousy 10kt-John

Well, that may be true. But the idea of this thread was to get people to post pictures of different colored gold (which are alloys) and some being very low K. To see who finds what, where, in the USA (and the world I suppose too.)
 

Sawyer

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When I find some gold, I will post a photo, so far not much luck! Maybe some of the nice folks here will mail me some. If you find Gold in your mailbox, does that count? Please do not mail more than twenty pounds because I have a back problem! I amnow going down to the mailbox to wait on the packages to show up! Big thanks to everybody who sends gold to me!!!
 

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