gold thing found at beach

[patpall22]

hello, I found this little metal thing at the beach. I tested it when i got home and it reacts with the 18k solution( can't find the higher ones) any ideas? could it be a small coin? I think its a bit heavy and round to b a filling. any ideas would be great.

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

A Handbook of Civil War Bullets and Cartridges - Grab it through Amazon!

[smokeythecat]

Could be, but can't tell by the pics.

 

[DizzyDigger]

Pat...interesting find!

It looks almost like an amalgam button. Early prospectors (and even a few
modern ones) would use mercury to pick up the small gold in their pans, and
then they would cook off the mercury (today we use a retort) and what was left
was a button of gold.

Don't know what else it cold be, unless it was a natural nugget beat up in the surf
for a hundred years..?

 

[patpall22]

thanks dizzy digger for the suggestion! don't know how it could have made it so far south. i keep looking at it and it almost appears to have some embossing? maybe my eyes are playing tricks on me though. I found it above the tide line(even storm surges) in-between a lagoon and a very high energy break beach. I often find quarters that are reduced to the size of dimes and such. Is there a really good way to bring out more detail on gold? cleaning methods? I'm just stumped

 

[Back-of-the-boat]

thanks dizzy digger for the suggestion! don't know how it could have made it so far south. i keep looking at it and it almost appears to have some embossing? maybe my eyes are playing tricks on me though. I found it above the tide line(even storm surges) in-between a lagoon and a very high energy break beach. I often find quarters that are reduced to the size of dimes and such. Is there a really good way to bring out more detail on gold? cleaning methods? I'm just stumped

The hills of east county San Diego (Julian) are known for gold, also the deserts and a lot of the streams and rivers have gold if this was San Diego your avatar shows San Diego/Carmel so not sure where you found it, but Monterey was the capital of Alta California so if by Carmel it could be a gold Spanish coin, seriously beat up from being in the surf.I tend to like Dizzy's idea of an amalgam button of gold.