Copper, silver, gold?

[Whiplash00]

Found this with my metal detector last week. It was over a foot deep, pulled it out of the hard clay and ocean fossils. It weighs 15 grams and is about the size of a quarter. There's a little Quartz and limestone on it, also small amount of iron oxide. It's Non magnetic and gives a very high signal. I hit it with weak acid and dissolved some of the sea crust off. The weight is now 14 grams.

 

[bill_wabo]

Silver or lead ore?

 

[Whiplash00]

I'll drop it in again and dissolve the rest of the calcium carbonate off

 

[Whiplash00]

I soaked this in Hydrochloric acid again until it dissolved all the crust. It's very hard, I tried to make an impression on it with my thumb nail and with a flat head screw driver, but that didn't work. It needs cleaned up a little more, has a cool shimmer.

 

[meMiner]

Lead will also slowly react to Hydrochloric Acid. If I were in your shoes, I would have a jeweler look at it to rule out platinum and silver. It is difficult to tell for sure from the picture. Good luck and let us know.

 

[Eu_citzen]

I'd do a streak test.

 

[meMiner]

I'd do a streak test and jeweler's acid test. I am thinking this might in fact be silver. Just was found in a really odd spot.

 

[Whiplash00]

I am going to take it to this local rock and gem shop. I used Lysol toilet cleaner with 9.5% hydrochloric acid to dissolve the calcium carbonate off of it. I've found tons of basalt and volcanic rock in the area so my guess is that this came up through a fracture in the ocean floor and cooled in the coral bed. So what metal could this be if that is the case?