Old Beach Gold Needs Some Help

[mcmurphi]

Got out on a road trip a few days ago to an old tucked away saltwater beach and rescued this keeper amongst the nails. It is very mineralized. I have been cleaning it with dish soap and at tooth brush for a couple of days now just hoping to get a glimpse of some detail. I was using my cz-21 with the sensitivity cranked. With that setting where I was, it was not too bad but still getting the extra chirps to fight through. I was almost done for the day and I got a nice soft repeatable mid tone and I thought to myself, go ahead and dig, at least it's not a iron. It was a good 8 inches down.
I have found a few gold rings over the years but this one for sure is one of the oldest I have recovered in saltwater. Certainly the most crusted. I'm anxious to see just what she looks like. Open to suggestions for restoration if you have some. I have been searching around the net and not much on cleaning heavy mineralized gold.

mcmurphi

 

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[testing123]

You sure it's gold?

 

[brendan1414]

You sure it's gold?

this. gold really doesn't get "heavily mineralized"

 

[biggmike]

You sure it's gold?

I agree...
I've never seen gold get so crusted like that. Every piece I have found looks pretty much like the day they lost it. I guess if it was touching iron that could happen. Last year I was hunting with davidfl and he found a clump that looked like a ring and I told him "no way that's gold" but after a little cleaning we found that it had a wire in it to make it fit someone's finger better (which I guess didn't work) It turned out to be a beautiful 14K coin ring but it looked like a clump of concrete before cleaning because of that other metal I guess. I have never seen one turn green. Can you see a maker mark or Kt. mark? Let us know what you find out.

 

[CRUSADER]

looks more like a cheap copper-alloy core with gold plating

 

[chukers]

yeah the green is from copper whether its in the core or not.. if its plated it will come through... I'd be hooking it up to an electrolysis setup...


http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,407784.0.html
or
http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,414367.0.html
or
http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,435713.0.html

Chukers

 

[mcmurphi]

Thanks all for the advise on this one. Electrolysis it is then. I will post what it ends up looking like

 

[mcmurphi]

The other tidbit about this ring is that it rings up a solid 28 on my DFX. If it was copper or brass alloy it would be way up there. Say 55-80 range. But we shall see when I'm done.

 

[chukers]

The other tidbit about this ring is that it rings up a solid 28 on my DFX. If it was copper or brass alloy it would be way up there. Say 55-80 range. But we shall see when I'm done.

that is true... brass and copper does ring up much higher on a whites... Good Luck!

 

[lucky d]

it could very swell be gold....10k is made up of 41.7 % gold and 58.3 % filler....it's the filler that is causing all the green crud....i have found a few 10k rings all green and cruddy like the ones you found and after cleaning them (tumbler) i was pleasantly surprised...i hope you are too....hh

 

[mcmurphi]

Hey thanks for all the replies and comments on this. I'm going to take it to a friend to look at but I did some frying on it. The pic is terrible but I don't have decent light tonight. Anyway, it might be 10k or plating, we shall see. Maybe a nickel alloy too. Again, thanks so much.

 

[tomharris76]

Good luck, hope it cleans up.

 

[mr_larry]

I found a very chunky men's nugget ring that was 10K and was quite brown. I soaked it overnight in vinegar with the thinking being that the vinegar would not react with the gold but it would react with some of the other material. In the morning she was gold!

 

[chukers]

I'd let it fry longer... or soak in vinegar or peroxide... it'll come off... I have one that is rolled gold that has a silver core... it was very cruddy too but it cleaned up very nice... even though its not all gold its a nice old ring which I suspect your could be too!

Chukers