✅ SOLVED Found this doing yard work. I believe it is natural platinum. But?????

[IAMKNOW1]

I was doing some yard work about a year ago and found what looked like a fossil to me and having always loved different rocks & minerals I brought it in the house. Doing some more yard work I began to notice there was A LOT of rocks in this yard. I can dig down 3 feet or so and have river rocks start filling my hole back up with little to no dirt. I started looking at some of these and I could see gold & pyrite, silver, gray to dark gray to metals in a lot of them. Now I am landscaping and breaking rocks. I picked up the old fossil & noticed gold & silver color in it so I decided to break it open and this is what I found. The nugget weighs 97.7 gr's & I tried your torch test. 20 minutes later & the tip of the nugget wasnt even red yet. I let it cool down & it looked like it had never seen a torch. I have a couple magnets that will really pinch your fingers & it just barely stuck to it. The complete piece weighs 1.74lbs. I washed it off after breaking it out of it's casing and glued it back together for the pictures. I have never seen anything like it in 50 years and was hoping someone on here could just verify what I think I have found. Thank you very much in advance, I can't wait to read your answers. T.

 

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[smokeythecat]

Welcome. What part of the country do you hail from? If it's platinum, it's huge for the US. Not magnetic.....hmmmm.

 

[IAMKNOW1]

I live in Washington state in the shadow of Mt. Rainier.

 

[smokeythecat]

Did you find it in a built up area or more wilderness type area? I don't think it was something brought in. I'll do some checking.

 

[H-2 CHARLIE]

this may be a banner find .. HAVE IT LOOK OVER BY SOMEONE WHO KNOWS ROCKS .

 

[smokeythecat]

No platinum in Pierce County, but there are about 6 counties in Washington State that have placier platinum. One of those metal test kits might help, a coin dealer might be a source, but don't sell it till you know.

 

[Broken knee]

In terms of rarity the largest platinum nugget in the United States is ½ ounce in weight. The largest in Canada is not quite ¼ ounce. Even placer nuggets of one gram in size are extremely rare. HH
BK
3,215°F (1,768°C)
Platinum, Melting point

The maximum adiabatic flame temperature a propane torch can achieve with air is 2268 kelvins (1995 °C / 3623 °F).
The maximum adiabatic flame temperature a butane torch can achieve with air is 2243 kelvin (1970 °C / 3578 °F).

 

[wvwildman]

how soft is it what kind of gas did you use for your torch ?

 

[wvwildman]

could be white gold

 

[Broken knee]

Also you can figure out what it is by volume. The volume of the metal = the volume of the water and metal, minus the volume of the water. HH
BK

 

[Broken knee]

I'd say you have a better chance of it being silver than platinum the melting point of silver is 1,763°F (961.8°C) and close to the max temp of your torch. The piece is large enough that it act's as a heat sink and you cant get it hot enough to melt. HH
JMO the voulme test will tell all?
BK

 

[smokeythecat]

Silver should tarnish black in the ground, more than likely. I think a test for platinum, silver, gold, etc. would work. The definitive test is a scanning electron microscope test, and they are about $45 but you have to send a piece of the object off for the test. The whole thing can be sent. You know what else it could be? Gold covered in mercury. I sent off for a sem test what I thought was a platinum nugget and it was 60% gold and 40% mercury from the old timers. That look is silver and it does not tarnish.

 

[Broken knee]

I was doing some yard work about a year ago and found what looked like a fossil to me and having always loved different rocks & minerals I brought it in the house. Doing some more yard work I began to notice there was A LOT of rocks in this yard. I can dig down 3 feet or so and have river rocks start filling my hole back up with little to no dirt. I started looking at some of these and I could see gold & pyrite, silver, gray to dark gray to metals in a lot of them. Now I am landscaping and breaking rocks. I picked up the old fossil & noticed gold & silver color in it so I decided to break it open and this is what I found. The nugget weighs 97.7 gr's & I tried your torch test. 20 minutes later & the tip of the nugget wasnt even red yet. I let it cool down & it looked like it had never seen a torch. I have a couple magnets that will really pinch your fingers & it just barely stuck to it. The complete piece weighs 1.74lbs. I washed it off after breaking it out of it's casing and glued it back together for the pictures. View attachment 742357 View attachment 742358 View attachment 742359 View attachment 742360 I have never seen anything like it in 50 years and was hoping someone on here could just verify what I think I have found. Thank you very much in advance, I can't wait to read your answers. T.

The pic with your hand on it the rock looks more like a mold than a rock? Or investment material?

 

[lastleg]

That really looks like platinum. I would be busting open all the fossils I could find.

 

[AU Seeker]

Take it to a reputable jeweler they should have an very good electronic tester that will tell you what you need to know, if it is a natural platinum nugget it's very big for this part of the world and could be much more valuable than many little platinum nuggets of the same weight.

That being said there are much BIGGER platinum nuggets that have been found in Russia, the biggest is around 8KG and is in the The Kremlin's State Diamond Fund Museum, here a picture of a 9 ounce platinum nugget found in the same area of Russia.

Platinum and Gold Natural Crystals, platinum and gold nuggets, gold quartz specimens

Here's another nugget that weights in at 3.6 ounces that was found in Russia as well.

Platinum - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

File:Platinum-nugget.jpg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

The pic with your hand on it the rock looks more like a mold than a rock? Or investment material?

my first thought also was a mold.


what kind of torch did you use?

 

[IAMKNOW1]

I used a propane torch with a rose bud tip for 20 mins. It didn't phase it. It does' look like a mold, but I can assure you this was all done by Mother nature. I have several other rocks I have found that look identical to the casing that was directly covering the nugget. I just added a pic of one of those pieces. The crystals all look metallic as well...??

 

[wvwildman]

propane's not hot enough

 

[Broken knee]

I used a propane torch with a rose bud tip for 20 mins. It didn't phase it. It does' look like a mold, but I can assure you this was all done by Mother nature. I have several other rocks I have found that look identical to the casing that was directly covering the nugget. I just added a pic of one of those pieces. The crystals all look metallic as well...??

did you read post 11 the part about heat sink affect you wont melt it not even close? you could melt it with a cutting torch but you'd blast it all over the place with the oxygen. as I stated the volume test is some thing you can do apply the known volume of your item to the same volume of platinum it should weigh the same if not then its some other metal.

 

[flyadive]

Looks like melted Aluminum to me.