Not so Precious Metal ingots found at the beach

Meltdown

The fam & I hit the our favorite beach for hunting sea glass a couple days before the New year. My son starts hollering he found a ship anchor half buried in the rocks. Well, they're not exactly a ships anchor, but there were 2 of them pretty near each other.
We dug them out and found 2- 60lb lead ingots for our efforts. They're about 3' in length. I kept 1 and left the other... Crazy how something this heavy winds up washed ashore.
N-F Metals is stamped up top. A little googling tells me that Non-ferrous Metals is a 3rd generation, family owned foundry based out of Seattle specializing in lead casting, alloying and recycling.
Pretty cool eh?

Downtown1974

That’s cool. Looking quickly at the picture and before reading the description in your post, I thought they were old window weights.

bronco2078

is it ballast from a boat?

WildIdea

I’ve heard of sacrificial metal bars being bolted to ships hills to prevent rusting. Many different types. A google search said magnesium is a common metal type for this.

Meltdown

@bronco2078 said:
is it ballast from a boat?

I believe so, yes.

Timbuk3

That's pretty neat !!!

asheland

Cool find!

metalmeister

Zincs?

Weiss

Just called them to ask approximate value. If they're the "60 lb Lead Ingots", they retail for about $2 per pound.
He said they wouldn't pay that much to buy them back, but they definitely have some scrap value.

I'd sell 'em and use the $$ to buy gold or silver. Nothing better than an old fashioned trash-to-treasure conversion!

LukeMarshall

Awesome Finds, and that is a really nice spot!
I have been combing the local beach here for beach glass for the past couple years

at first there was soooo much, but its been slim pickings of late

Very cool beach find there with the Giant Lead Bar also

Meltdown

@Weiss - Not a bad idea though I don't know who the heck would buy something this heavy. I suppose I could craigslist it, but I kinda think it's cool as a front porch doorstop type thing. I sure as heck don't want to ship something this heavy.

Thanks Luke. This is our super, top secret beach that's not very accessible to the public. There's quite a bit of glass to be found but we've put a dent in over the past couple years. You should see the cliff and hanging ropes we have to traverse to get down to it and you'd really appreciate how I got a 60lb lead ingot home. No way I was going back for the 2nd one.

mapleman

These were commonly called lead "PIGS" in the printing industry for casting 'hot type'. I believe that is an industrial term these days for lead ingots. Could have or still been used for ballast or whatever in many sizes/weights.

canoenut

@LukeMarshall said:
Awesome Finds, and that is a really nice spot!
I have been combing the local beach here for beach glass for the past couple years

at first there was soooo much, but its been slim pickings of late

Very cool beach find there with the Giant Lead Bar also

canoenut

I have come across a lead ingo with the name LIBERTY cast on top. Does anyone know anything about the source and age of such an item? Thanks!

canoenut

Whoops! I meant "ingot"

shorecoll

My dad worked at a shipyard making sailboats and they would open air pour lead keels in handmade sand molds. These days an OSHA inspector would have a stroke just seeing that.

JWP

Wow..

ricko

Don't know how I missed this post back in 2019.... Nice lead ingots.... Found one while I lived in WA state.... out by Ocean Shores..... Cheers, RickO

Meltdown

@ricko said:
Don't know how I missed this post back in 2019.... Nice lead ingots.... Found one while I lived in WA state.... out by Ocean Shores..... Cheers, RickO

It's still sitting on my front porch as "decoration" and an occasional tripping hazard.

AUandAG

They washed ashore with the boat. Surf action will not affect any major movement from where they were dropped. Cool find for sure.
We don't have such stuff in the Desert......would be fun to search a beach.......maybe someday, eh?
bob

rte592

I heard there was supposed to be a stage coach with gold from California that got lost in the sand dunes on the old plank road.

You would think some satellite would be able to see under 50 feet of blow sand and get a gps coordinate.

Jzyskowski1

Grandpa used to cast his own weights for steelhead fishing. Had 1/2 oz on up to several oz molds, propane torch , bars of lead, in the shop. DIY sinkers, those were the days ( grandpa’s antique refrigerator,full of beer)
Now a day lead is a no no 🙀