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Anyone ever see a gold nugget that looks like this.?

SmittysSmittys Posts: 9,876 ✭✭✭✭✭
in Precious Metals
Was given to shareholders from a Canadian mine.
I filed into it and it tested 17K, however it only weighs 2.5 grams, which seems light given it's size.
What do you think?

image
image
https://www.ebay.com/str/christyscoins

Comments

  • BaleyBaley Posts: 22,661 ✭✭✭✭✭
    looks like pyrite

    Liberty: Parent of Science & Industry

  • gecko109gecko109 Posts: 8,231 ✭
    Not gold. Gold does not fracture like the piece you show.....notice all the cleavage lines? Looks like specimen quality pyrite to me, but cant be if it tested out at 17K. All I can tell you for sure is that gold does NOT form cleavage lines.
  • SmittysSmittys Posts: 9,876 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I filed into it, my gold tester tested it 17k and acid sat there on it ??? image
    https://www.ebay.com/str/christyscoins
  • gecko109gecko109 Posts: 8,231 ✭


    << <i>I filed into it, my gold tester tested it 17k and acid sat there on it ??? image >>




    In that case, you and I will be doing multi-billion dollar "gold" deals in the very near future. Just give me a few days to locate a steady supply of pyrite!


    image
  • SmittysSmittys Posts: 9,876 ✭✭✭✭✭
    image

    broke the piece and it test 22k
    Now how do they gold plate inside a chunk??

    GXL-24 gold tester
    https://www.ebay.com/str/christyscoins
  • gecko109gecko109 Posts: 8,231 ✭


    broke the piece and it test 22k
    Now how do they gold plate inside a chunk?? >>






    Ok Smitty, theres your problem right there! Gold does not "break". If you took a hammer to that chunk I can guarantee you would have powdered iron sulfate.....more commonly known as pyrite. image
  • SmittysSmittys Posts: 9,876 ✭✭✭✭✭


    << <i>broke the piece and it test 22k
    Now how do they gold plate inside a chunk?? >>






    Ok Smitty, theres your problem right there! Gold does not "break". If you took a hammer to that chunk I can guarantee you would have powdered iron sulfate.....more commonly known as pyrite. image >>



    I did hit it with a hammer and it broke off a chunk, but inside the break the broken area tested 22k with my tester
    https://www.ebay.com/str/christyscoins
  • gecko109gecko109 Posts: 8,231 ✭


    << <i>

    << <i>broke the piece and it test 22k
    Now how do they gold plate inside a chunk?? >>






    Ok Smitty, theres your problem right there! Gold does not "break". If you took a hammer to that chunk I can guarantee you would have powdered iron sulfate.....more commonly known as pyrite. image >>



    I did hit it with a hammer and it broke off a chunk, but inside the break the broken area tested 22k with my tester >>





    Can you "isolate" the chunk that tested 22K? If so, place it on a hard surface and give it a couple good whacks. Gold with "squish", pyrite will shatter. Report back with your findings.
  • BigRickBigRick Posts: 1,334
    Not gold. Pyrite.
    My Sets
  • CaptHenwayCaptHenway Posts: 32,274 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I question the veracity of your tester.
    Numismatist. 50 year member ANA. Winner of four ANA Heath Literary Awards; three Wayte and Olga Raymond Literary Awards; Numismatist of the Year Award 2009, and Lifetime Achievement Award 2020. Winner numerous NLG Literary Awards.
  • TomBTomB Posts: 21,378 ✭✭✭✭✭
    That appears to be iron pyrite aka "fool's gold".
    Thomas Bush Numismatics & Numismatic Photography

    In honor of the memory of Cpl. Michael E. Thompson

    image
  • Steve27Steve27 Posts: 13,274 ✭✭✭
    Looks similar to pyrite, but not quite the same.

    image
    "It's far easier to fight for principles, than to live up to them." Adlai Stevenson
  • gecko109gecko109 Posts: 8,231 ✭


    << <i>Looks similar to pyrite, but not quite the same.

    image >>






    Notice the brassy look, and distinct cleavage lines of both your picture and the OP's? Those are 2 dead giveaways in distinguishing gold from pyrite. Gold is not brittle....it will not crumble, or shatter when struck. It will not split into pieces when hit with a hammer. It does not cleave. In fact, one of the most basic of all field tests to differentiate gold from pyrite is the "knife test". Place the specimen on a hard surface, and take a large blade, and push down hard on the material. If it cleaves, crumbles, or shatters its definately not gold. Actual gold will simply show an indentation of where the blade was pressed into it.
  • ttownttown Posts: 4,472 ✭✭✭
    Pyrite is usually found associated with other sulfides or oxides in quartz veins, sedimentary rock, and metamorphic rock, as well as in coal beds, and as a replacement mineral in fossils. Despite being nicknamed fool's gold, pyrite is sometimes found in association with small quantities of gold. Gold and arsenic occur as a coupled substitution in the pyrite structure. In the Carlin, Nevada, gold deposit, arsenian pyrite contains up to 0.37 wt% gold.[9]

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrite
  • PokermandudePokermandude Posts: 2,713 ✭✭✭


    << <i>looks like pyrite >>



    ^ The exact 3 words I was about to post.
    http://stores.ebay.ca/Mattscoin - Canadian coins, World Coins, Silver, Gold, Coin lots, Modern Mint Products & Collections
  • Steve27Steve27 Posts: 13,274 ✭✭✭
    I agree, this doesn't look like gold, but it appears to cleave more like obsidian, than pyrite.

    image
    "It's far easier to fight for principles, than to live up to them." Adlai Stevenson
  • AUandAGAUandAG Posts: 24,792 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Fools gold. Some pyrite does contain gold. But gold does not exhibit sharp edges and fractures
    such as the one pictured. If held in hand and rotated like a coin does it display color changes from
    gold to black and back to gold? If so, definitive test for pyrite.

    bob
    Registry: CC lowballs (boblindstrom), bobinvegas1989@yahoo.com
  • renman95renman95 Posts: 7,037 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Is the tester from Goldline? image
  • derrybderryb Posts: 36,994 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Oh, no. image Now their counterfeiting nuggets as well?

    The government is incapable of ever managing the economy. That is why communism collapsed. It is now socialism’s turn - Martin Armstrong

  • 66Tbird66Tbird Posts: 2,858 ✭✭✭
    Fools gold all the way. I used to deal in the stuff, (not that it makes me an expert). There are lots of trace elements in pieces that don't fracture at right angles. The real good stuff is almost perfectly true. At one time I had a piece the size of a grapefruit but a perfect cube. I bought it with my grandfather when I was like 9 or so and that started my whole pyrite trip. As the AZ rock and mineral show grew bigger so did my little business using gramps contacts. Till finally I had a stupid money offer and almost all were sold. (Hello silver, gold and coins)

    Neat little piece. Make me look up on my wall at my fist size chunkimage
    Need something designed and 3D printed?
  • watercrestwatercrest Posts: 47
    Cool little piece.
  • PinkFloydPinkFloyd Posts: 1,762 ✭


    << <i>I agree, this doesn't look like gold, but it appears to cleave more like obsidian, than pyrite.

    image >>



    I agree. It does kind of look like obsidian. Very glassy.
    Successful transactions with keepdachange, tizofthe, adriana, wondercoin
  • GeotovoreGeotovore Posts: 169


    << <i>I agree. It does kind of look like obsidian. Very glassy. >>



    Ah, obsidian. Fool's pyrite.
  • jsfjsf Posts: 1,889
    "Was given to shareholders from a Canadian mine."

    wow, due diligence be damned. image

    so sad.
  • DoubleEagle59DoubleEagle59 Posts: 8,332 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Doesn't look like gold from the pics.

    Pyrite would be my choice.

    Acid tests, done properly don't lie, so I don't know what to say?

    In regards to the 'cleavage lines'....

    I would say that these 'lines' exhibit 'fracture' rather than 'cleavage' (two distinct and separate properties of all Minerals).

    These 'lines' indicate to me a "Conchoidal Fracture" and Gold does not exhibit this as a physical property.

    Therefore I would conclude that it is not Gold.
    "Gold is money, and nothing else" (JP Morgan, 1912)

    "“Those who sacrifice liberty for security/safety deserve neither.“(Benjamin Franklin)

    "I only golf on days that end in 'Y'" (DE59)
  • PerryHallPerryHall Posts: 46,283 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Smitty---I hope you didn't pay too much for that "gold".imageimage

    Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
    "Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
    "Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire

  • CaptHenwayCaptHenway Posts: 32,274 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Ah, so it's Canadian!
    ,
    Beaver Cleavage!!!!
    .
    image
    Numismatist. 50 year member ANA. Winner of four ANA Heath Literary Awards; three Wayte and Olga Raymond Literary Awards; Numismatist of the Year Award 2009, and Lifetime Achievement Award 2020. Winner numerous NLG Literary Awards.
  • tydyetydye Posts: 3,894 ✭✭✭
    Gecko is 100% right

    I am surprised you even bothered to test it. Wow
  • pakasmompakasmom Posts: 1,920 ✭
    Smitty, I've got some gold I'd like to sell ya.... Just PM for details. image
  • RGJohnRGJohn Posts: 402


    << <i>I agree, this doesn't look like gold, but it appears to cleave more like obsidian, than pyrite.

    image >>



    Sorry Smitty but I have to agree. Nuggets don't cleave, they flatten under the hammer. And they sure as heck don't exhibit conchoidal fracture. Pyrite smashes to dust. That's some kind of glass, natural obsidian or otherwise coated in gold.
    The test results may be due to contamination by the gold coating.
    As owner of several mines I can honestly state that the gold is more often to be found in the stock than in the rock.
    Many, many perfect transactions with other members. Ask please.
  • carew4mecarew4me Posts: 3,473 ✭✭✭✭


    << <i>"Was given to shareholders from a Canadian mine." >>



    Common shareholders!

    Loves me some shiny!
  • edmundfitzgeraldedmundfitzgerald Posts: 4,306 ✭✭
    Common shareholders got the common gold. Prefered shareholders got the prefered gold.
  • CaptHenwayCaptHenway Posts: 32,274 ✭✭✭✭✭
    .....and the miners get the shaft........

    image
    Numismatist. 50 year member ANA. Winner of four ANA Heath Literary Awards; three Wayte and Olga Raymond Literary Awards; Numismatist of the Year Award 2009, and Lifetime Achievement Award 2020. Winner numerous NLG Literary Awards.
  • goingbrokegoingbroke Posts: 1,410


    << <i>looks like pyrite >>

    I agree!
    Many successful BST transactions ajia
    (x2,Meltdown),cajun,Swampboy,SeaEagleCoins,InYHWHWeTrust, bstat1020,Spooly,timrutnat,oilstates200, vpr, guitarwes,
    mariner67, and Mikes coins
  • goingbrokegoingbroke Posts: 1,410


    << <i>Oh, no. image Now their counterfeiting nuggets as well? >>

    We will soon see these for sale on E Bay!
    Many successful BST transactions ajia
    (x2,Meltdown),cajun,Swampboy,SeaEagleCoins,InYHWHWeTrust, bstat1020,Spooly,timrutnat,oilstates200, vpr, guitarwes,
    mariner67, and Mikes coins
  • Mission16Mission16 Posts: 1,413 ✭✭✭
    Anything new on this...?

    I think it looks like obsidian.
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