What's the story on this Asian gold bell?

[cudamark]

I found this bell in the wet sand at the beach. No corrosion at all. I hit it with the 10K acid and got no reaction. 14k acid gets a reaction though. There are no markings inside.....just the ones stamped into the outside. Can anyone read these to tell me what they say? Do they make a brass alloy that will hold up to acid? I'm hoping it's gold, but, not holding my breath here! Still an interesting find at the beach. First bell I've found where you could unscrew the hanger/clapper assembly.

 

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[Carolina Tom]

I am seeing Thai temple bells that are very similar in design.

Deciphering the writing ought to be the key... sorry, I can barely read English!

 

[RustyGold]

Now that's a cool find!

 

[HAPPYCAMPER]

Just a wild guess,from a keychain?

 

[Back-of-the-boat]

My wife collects bells she would kill for that, it is very cool.Have no idea on the writing just love it.

 

[hvacker]

I doubt it's gold because gold bells won't ring.
It reminds me of the type of bell someone gives when a person buys a new Harley. It's for good luck.
To keep Gremlins away.

 

[cudamark]

I figured it was brass too, until I saw the complete lack of corrosion and I ran the acid test. I'm just hoping someone here can read the symbols and can translate them for me. The color was a bit off for brass also. I have several chunks of brass that I compared to the bell. The bell color was closer to some gold rings I have than the scrap brass. There are so many different alloys that the color might not mean much, but, I thought it was an interesting fact also. I acid tested my scrap brass and got a reaction from the 10k acid. I didn't get a reaction with the 10k on the bell.

 

[Dug]

My wife looked at it and verified that it is Mandarin Chinese writing. She could not give a simplified translation but something along the lines of the first character is how you are lately, second part is you win, and third part is hospital. She could not translate the combined meaning though.

Something to consider is that the bell may be brass plated in gold. The Taiwanese are big into high grade gold for their jewelry and you have to be careful with some of their jewelry being too soft as they like to use 22 carat grade in a lot of items. This may be a higher grade gold plating on brass .

 

[cudamark]

I filed an edge to make sure it wasn't plated. The acid test was the same in that spot as the rest of the unfiled surface. This is much harder than the scrap brass I was using as a test, so I suspect it's an alloy of some type. Just hoping it's a gold alloy and not a brass alloy! 10K jewelry can be gold mixed with an assortment of other metals. Depending on which metal they use, I would imaging it could be a variety of colors and hardness? Thanks for determining that it's Mandarin. The stamps on each side are different. One side has 3 characters, the other has 4.