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Help me identify

solsgt

New Member
Joined
Feb 23, 2013
Messages
2
Hello all

Found these two nugget in a river bed with my AT Pro.

What can they be Silver or Platinum.

IMG_1781.jpg

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There are several ways to identify which element you have, alloys not so much. Some things to take note of are, softness - can you cut it with a knife or scratch it with a fingernail, relative weight - is it heavy for its relative size, does it throw a spark when applied to a spinning grinding wheel, does it or the shavings ignite in the presence of a flame, do the shavings react with water, does the exterior have a white coating, what does a slice into the inside look like, is it ferrous, does it conduct electricity, and the most telling - its specific density. If you can find a very tiny container of a known size, and can sand or grind down enough dust from the metal to fill that container, then weigh that container, then calculate using your numbers exactly what a cubic centimeter container of the same stuff would weigh, then there are charts online that give the specific densities of other metals. Usually this method can get you in the ballpark as long as you are meticulous with your calculations and then the other tests listed above can help discern exactly which metal you have. Hope this helps.

Remember to wear a respirator, safety glasses, and gloves.
 
There are several ways to identify which element you have, alloys not so much. Some things to take note of are, softness - can you cut it with a knife or scratch it with a fingernail, relative weight - is it heavy for its relative size, does it throw a spark when applied to a spinning grinding wheel, does it or the shavings ignite in the presence of a flame, do the shavings react with water, does the exterior have a white coating, what does a slice into the inside look like, is it ferrous, does it conduct electricity, and the most telling - its specific density. If you can find a very tiny container of a known size, and can sand or grind down enough dust from the metal to fill that container, then weigh that container, then calculate using your numbers exactly what a cubic centimeter container of the same stuff would weigh, then there are charts online that give the specific densities of other metals. Usually this method can get you in the ballpark as long as you are meticulous with your calculations and then the other tests listed above can help discern exactly which metal you have. Hope this helps.

Remember to wear a respirator, safety glasses, and gloves.

While all of what you said is correct, it seems like a waste of time for what is almost certainly aluminum or possibly zinc/pot metal. Very few metals appear as 'nuggets' naturally.
 
While all of what you said is correct, it seems like a waste of time for what is almost certainly aluminum or possibly zinc/pot metal. Very few metals appear as 'nuggets' naturally.

That's how I found my beryllium bub and I'll waste my time however I darn well please :p
 
There are several ways to identify which element you have, alloys not so much. Some things to take note of are, softness - can you cut it with a knife or scratch it with a fingernail, relative weight - is it heavy for its relative size, does it throw a spark when applied to a spinning grinding wheel, does it or the shavings ignite in the presence of a flame, do the shavings react with water, does the exterior have a white coating, what does a slice into the inside look like, is it ferrous, does it conduct electricity, and the most telling - its specific density. If you can find a very tiny container of a known size, and can sand or grind down enough dust from the metal to fill that container, then weigh that container, then calculate using your numbers exactly what a cubic centimeter container of the same stuff would weigh, then there are charts online that give the specific densities of other metals. Usually this method can get you in the ballpark as long as you are meticulous with your calculations and then the other tests listed above can help discern exactly which metal you have. Hope this helps.

Remember to wear a respirator, safety glasses, and gloves.

Or....get a container that has Cubic centimeter graduations. Fill it to a convenient number, say 10 cc's. Drop in your piece and record the change, say it went to 12.5 cc's. Your piece is 2.5 cc's. Now weigh it and divide that number by 2.5. The result will be your items weight per cc. No sanding/grinding gloves glasses and all that !!!!.
 
That and the odds of finding a single nugget are extremely low, finding two in the same area are pretty much nil. Finding melted aluminum is very common.

Stranger things have happened. Heavy metals are delivered to the planet in the form of meteor. Some are bigger than others. Some contain more of one metal than another. In the entirety of the universe - gold, silver, platinum, etc are still pretty rare when compared to Iron and lighter elements. How much a planet has really depends upon the luck of the draw.

Look at the Comstock load. What is the odds of finding that much silver AND gold in one place?
 
Stranger things have happened. Heavy metals are delivered to the planet in the form of meteor. Some are bigger than others. Some contain more of one metal than another. In the entirety of the universe - gold, silver, platinum, etc are still pretty rare when compared to Iron and lighter elements. How much a planet has really depends upon the luck of the draw.

Look at the Comstock load. What is the odds of finding that much silver AND gold in one place?

I'm talking odds here. Yes it is in theory possible the OP found two large nuggets of silver or platinum in the same streambed. The odds of that being the case, instead of some melted beer cans, are insanely small.
 
I found a dense clump of metal in a park.
My detector consistently told me it was in the gold/silver range.
Took it to a local university chemistry department.
It was lead.
 
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