Updated - Fantastic Weekend... or not?

[z118]

Not much detecting for me lately... two weekends ago I got completely skunked on one day and was sick on the next, and last weekend my father came to town, so the only detecting I did was with him - it was his first time detecting and was fun for sure but not productive in terms of finds. He actually took my Sov with him back to New Hampshire. I really hope he gets into the hobby.

At any rate, I had good amounts of time for swinging this weekend. I was in some way a bit tired of looking for silver coins... they sure are fun to find, but they are not so much fun when NOT found, which is often enough the case for me. So I opted to do the school yard thing, hoping for clad and maybe some interesting items. Saturday I hit the dirt and found a bunch of clad, along with a matching set of .925 earings, a 10 gram weight, a few wheats, and a Japanese 2 yen coin. Sunday I did the tot lot thing. None of them were really panning out like I'd hoped. I was on my last one which has NEVER really produced. As I was wrapping it up I get a tone, look down, and see a big gold honker. I picked it up and laughed - no way this thing's real I thought. I had a fun time looking at it, trying to find a stamp, feeling it's weight and wondering... could it be? I noticed the settings in the center were white (not gold colored) which seemed to reflect some craftmanship. And the side walls were cut out as if to reduce weight, and why bother doing that with a junk metal? It was a fun, heart racing drive home as I weighed the chances in my mind. Sure enough it acid tests as 10k. SWEET! This has been a down year for me in the gold department but this find sure helps fix that! I'm sure the stones are junk but I'll take it to a jeweler this week just to be sure (and to verify it really is 10k gold). I weighed it at work this morning and it comes in at 16 grams even (though I don't know how much of that is the stones).

Total for the weekend was 249 coins worth $17.53, the two silver earings, the big gold, and the usual trinkets, buttons, etc.

Happy hunting and thanks for looking!

[randy]

Sweet digs :clapping: Gratz on that big honkin' gold :cheering:

[Lowjiber]

Nice hunt. thumbsup01 The cross is in very good shape. I'm most impressed that you found BOTH ear rings. All I usually do is find one. crying01

[HEAVYMETALNUT]

sweet cross! hope it turns out to be real.sometimes they plate 925 with gold and the acid test gets fooled unless you really scrape onto the stone good.
got my fingers crossed for you on this one.have him check the stones too with the diamond tester when there!
good luck and a nice hunt!

[Jason in Enid]

Really good hunt! That's awesome that the cross turned out to be gold, great find! Congrats on all the finds, that's a lot of digging.

[RobW]

Wow...many impressive finds there. My bet is that the stones are real, not high grade, but real. Great find! I'm also equally impressed you found a MATCHING set of earings!

[z118]

Thanks for the comments all! I'm hoping to get to the jeweler tomorrow, I'll post the results!

[coinnut]

Wow :shocked04: My wife would have scoffed them earrings before they hit the table lol What a gorgeous cross!! I can see why you didn't think it was real gold. :yes: But I'm hoping Rob's guess is good for the stones being real. They do put low grade diamonds in things like that. But CZ work well too lol If real diamonds, I don't even want to know how much that person paid for that cross :shocked01: Nice hunt and you may only see a check for that loaned out machine rofl

[pulltabsteve]

Your coil must have been smokin this weekend!!!! Great job <:

[zrickkid]

Nice honking gold, good for you!

[z118]

Man I hate the uncertainty with these things.

I took the cross to a jeweler this morning. I've been trying to find a good local place that I trust. This place was very high end which in retrospect is likely not the right kind of place to take an item like this with a question like this. I was told right away the stones were not diamonds (no suprise). They took the cross out back for a while, and finally came back and said the item is not gold. I was suprised, and asked how they tested it. They used one of those digital meter type machines. I told them I had acid tested it thought it might be 10k. She replied that she wasn't sure, it might be low karat. She sounded pretty hesitant regarding the results from the machine but also stated that I looked a little funny for gold. She said she could try it on another machine if I wanted. I didn't want to bother them further so I said no and thanked them very much for their time.

Not being satisfied, I headed to another local jeweler, who I trust completely but she keeps odd hours and is hard to get ahold of. She was open, so I stopped in, showed her the piece, and explained that I thought it might be 10k but wanted to verify because my acid might be old. She said her acid was pretty old too (she had just ordered more but it had yet to come in). She still tested it with the questionable acid and like my kit at home it tested clearly as 10k. She also confirmed the stones were fake. She said the item was not plated, and that if she were the betting type she'd say it was 10k. She told me to come back when she had her new acid and she would test it again.

I stopped at one more Cash for Gold type place. I'm not inclined to trust these folks too much but I was looking for a tie breaker. I gave the guy the piece, told him I thought it was 10k and asked if he could verify. He looked at it through a loupe and said it looked like gold. He acid tested it and said Yep, it's gold. I asked if it was 10k. He said definitely.

You tell me?
__________________

[coinnut]

I say buy some new acid and trust yourself lol I believe with that many tests, it's 10K. The stones are probably CZ's or if they are all scratched up, then they are probably glass. I'm pretty sure you've got gold thumbsup01 Still a nice cross, even though there isn't a million dollars worth of diamonds in it ;)

[Beefcake]

I would have sold it to the gold guy... with such odd verdicts, you might as well made a few bucks if it isn't gold...heck he thought it was!..lol Nice looking find no doubt!!

[del]

just look at that haul :shocked04:stretcher: :shocked04:stretcher: very nice stuff . the religeous cross is a unique piece :yes: very sweet and to find out its real gold is awesome , congrats :clapping: