Old Hotel Hunt

Tony in FL · Jul 15, 2010

On Wednesday I got to hit an old hotel with a fellow hunter. Most of my hunts have been at the beach so I got to finally got give my ProPointer and Lesche digger a good workout. The coins were primarily memorial pennies. I did snag one 1940 nickle and a mystery metal ring. At first I thought the ring was junk as it had no markings. But with some polish it shined up as if it were silver. It fails the 10K gold test. A strong magnet does tug at it - but only slightly. Perhaps it is some kind of non-standard silver alloy or it may be junk as I initially thought. Anyway it was a lot of fun and a nice change from beach hunting. HH everyone!

MUD(S.W.A.T) · Jul 15, 2010

I'm sorry if its not marked and it pulls to a magnet :icon_scratch:

I'd say its just costume jewelry. :dontknow:

But hey its a ring find, good job !! :icon_thumleft:

Keep @ it and HH !!

Tony in FL · Jul 15, 2010

MUD(S.W.A.T) said:
I'm sorry if its not marked and it pulls to a magnet I'd say its just costume jewelry. But hey its a ring find, good job !!

Keep @ it and HH !!

Hi! Costume jewelry I tested along with the ring has a much stronger attraction to a magnet. The silver colored ring has only a very slight attraction. It was so slight I did not notice it at first. Some platinum alloys exhibit minor magnetic attraction and not all jewelry is marked (and of course marks can wear off). Anyway I am not saying the ring is not junk (it probably is junk) but at this point there is still a little bit of mystery to me. Even if the ring is silver the melt value would be trivial. However it is kind of fun trying find out more definitively. I may test the ring with a nitric and muriatic acid solution to try to determine if silver is present.

mlayers · Jul 15, 2010

Sounds like you had a good hunt. Any day that I can find a ring I call it a good day junk or not......Matt

Skelly607 · Jul 15, 2010

Still its a sweet ring.

gargreen18 · Jul 16, 2010

Some costume jewelry can go for a decent amount. You just have to have the right buyer. Etsy has a lot of old women selling their jewelery and people pay ridiculous amounts for it.

Cool finds none the less!