***UPDATE***GOOD Friday finds silver coin, ring, and 2lb ingot:huh:thinkingabout:

[mdakin]

So a friend and I hit an old park on Friday, an old picnic grove which has been producing pretty well. We have yet to visit without each of us leaving with silver and IH's. This past Friday was no exception.

It was late in the day when I got my first piece of silver a nice ring with what I think is turquoise in it? Can anyone confirm? It doesn't appear to have a silver mark on the inside, but I'm 100% sure this is silver. Could it be Native American? Anyone have a guess to it's age.

A short while later I thought I was about to dig up an extremely well preserved cannon ball.....however there was not one bit of rust on it, and well, it was only 1/3 of a cannon ball. After cleaning it up a bit, I am wondering if it may be a silver ingot. It is not magnetic, and scraping the edge and the top of it on a piece of paper leaves no marks, meaning I don't think it is lead. I am scraping very hard with no transfer. It is very heavy, I have a normal scale at home, and plopping in on the scale it consistantly weighs 2 pounds. It is about 1 inch thick, and slightly oval in shape. Diameter across one way is 4, and 3.75 another way.

I can't remember what forum I saw it in, but I remember a post with a similar shaped object that turned out to be silver. I believe after they melt down the silver ore, but prior to refining into pure silver they pour it into this shape for transportation to a refinery. At least that's the gist of how I remember it.

Does anyone have any thoughts or opinions? Have some input or ideas on how to truly test it?

Thanks for the feedback and thanks for looking,

Matt

[coinnut]

Matt, what a great day out :clapping: That is one nice piece of jewelry. It looks like raw turquoise and definitely hand done. That piece was made to fit the stone and not the other way around. Native American is a good guess. Although you can never be sure. It does at least look hand crafted. Age is a different issue lol It's older for sure, since almost all jewelry is marked these days. Now the big object is somewhat of a guess. I thought it was a material they called Babbitt, used a lot in the old days, but it would be sort of soft. Look up Babbitt and see the different varieties and uses for it. Testing it as silver should be easy, I would think. A silver test kit should tell you if there is any silver in it. It could just be mostly tin and some copper or tin and lead, etc... But a great hunt :clapping:

[z118]

Great digs! The stone certainly looks like turquoise to me, and the ring does look hand done for sure. I've dug quite a few silver pieces with no stamp so that's not too surprising. Sweet find for sure. I don't think the big piece is silver but there's no point in not testing, if only to know for sure.

[mdakin]

I found some babitt last season, and this is not like what I found. While babitt is a similar color, babitt has very little weight to it. This however is very dense.

The pictures don't do it any justice, as it is much shinier than how the pictures came out.

[love2dig]

Looks like it was a good day for you ,Matt !

[JTGOLD]

very good hunt.

[russellt]

loooks like a fabulous hunt to me

[Epi-hunter]

Great finds!! Love the ring. Sure looks like turquoise and I would be very surprised if that is not silver. :yes:

[angellionel]

That's a very nice hunt with many keepers in the pouch. thumbsup01

[coinnut]

I found some babitt last season, and this is not like what I found. While babitt is a similar color, babitt has very little weight to it. This however is very dense.

The pictures don't do it any justice, as it is much shinier than how the pictures came out.


It almost looks like pewter (tin and lead) or Tombac material (tin and copper) I would be shocked if it were silver. Silver is very expensive compared to someone's wages back then. I'm not sure how many people could have that amount of silver kicking around lol And then lose it too. But for your sake I hope it is silver :clapping: I gotta get me a test kit. I have a piece of what looks like a can rim, that I just know is silver (from a hand mirror I think?)

[aloldstuff]

I don't know much about much, but ya got my vote for silver

[odave]

Good hunt and finds thumbsup01

[Kimster]

Nice hand crafted silver and turquois. I don't think that there is much doubt about that. But now that you've got us all wondering what your ingot is, you have to post an update when you find out. :thinkingabout:

[RobW]

Nice finds.

Yeah, I can't imagine losing 2 pounds of silver. That had to have been fun to carry outta there lol

[mdakin]

I keep forgetting to bring it into work, as I wanted to bring it to a jewelry store nearby. Think I'll go put it in my car right now!

[mdakin]

Well, I went back to the jewelry store today as they had someone in with some sort of microwave scanner thingy. It basically determines what percentage an item is of gold or silver. Mine was 0%, which is what I sort of thought.

Unfortunately, it was not the type of system to tell me what it was composed of, it just tested for precious metals.

The jeweler feels the same as I do, that is it a mix of metals, some sort of compound. I think it is most likely pewter.

Anyone have any thoughts on where to go to find out what metals it is made of?

Thanks in advance.

[coop]

I agree with coinnut Babbitt. Nice finds thumbsup01 There are many Babbitt alloys in addition to Babbitt's original. Some common compositions are:

* 90% tin, 10% copper
* 89% tin, 7% antimony, 4% copper
* 80% lead, 15% antimony, 5% tin
* 76% copper, 24% lead
* 75% lead, 10% tin
* 67% copper, 28% tin, 5% lead

Internal combustion motors use Babbitt metal which is primarily tin-based because it can withstand the pounding. Lead-based Babbitt tends to work-harden and develop cracks but it is suitable for constant-turning tools such as sawblades.

[coinnut]

I would pretty much say, tin is one of the components, becaues of the pewter like color. Pewter is tin and lead. Now, Tombac (button and crotal bell) material, is that color also, and is tin and copper. If you were a tin smith, you probably would have that material around to solder the seams on mugs, lanterns and any other items that you fabricate. That's my guess on it. I don't know how you could tell what the composition is without high tech scanning equipment, like a scanning electron microscope :dontknow: