Any ideas of age and purpose of this ingot?

[LilyCL]

My daughter found this while we were snorkeling on a recent Caribbean cruise. It is a little over 4 lbs weight, very crude ingot casting (old maybe?), and has a relative density somewhere in the 8.5 area so thinking it is either brass or bronze. Any help on best ways to research historic and any other value appreciated.

 

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[Blak bart]

Love to see some different angles of that thing.....was it crusty when found?

 

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[Gene Mean]

Maybe there's a mark somewhere under the encrustation. What's the best way to remove it?

 

[Blak bart]

Muriatic acid solution......50/50 with water, and completely submerged.....wait til the fizzing stops.

 

[Gene Mean]

Muriatic acid solution......50/50 with water, and completely submerged.....wait til the fizzing stops.

Good to know. Hoping for a good news update.

 

[ticndig]

maybe it's a homemade weight for a divers belt?

 

[Clay Diggins]

With a specific gravity of 8.5 it's either copper, brass or bronze. Gold is more than twice as dense at 19.3.

From the appearance I would have to say it's not an intentional ingot. If you had ever poured ingots you would know this is an impossible shape for an ingot. It looks very much like several melted bronze objects I've seen from the San Francisco fire/earthquake.

I think it's probably exactly what it looks like - melted bronze. It could have been a melted cleat (size is right) or cannon from a ship fire or just about any of the other many bronze objects on naval vessels. From the copper salts on the surface it doesn't look like it's been in the water very long.

 

[bkurent]

My daughter found this while we were snorkeling on a recent Caribbean cruise. It is a little over 4 lbs weight, very crude ingot casting (old maybe?), and has a relative density somewhere in the 8.5 area so thinking it is either brass or bronze. Any help on best ways to research historic and any other value appreciated.


View attachment 2091956

Any update to this?