# possible gold



## Anonymous (Oct 10, 2007)

This is the first time going this, posting a question! I have what I believe is some gold I found in a creek. I hope someone can help me determine if what I found is gold or not. It looks alot like some that I got from a mine in S. Dakota. I'm alittle clueless and very optimistic. :? Not sure If I'm doing this right, but I hope someone can help. Water72


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## Harold_V (Oct 10, 2007)

Pretty easy to determine, even without any chemicals. If it's gold, it should be quite ductile----so try hitting it with a hammer. If it stays intact, but flattens well, it's gold, or most likely is gold. If it shatters, surely you've heard the term "fool's gold"?

Harold


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## Anonymous (Oct 10, 2007)

Harold_V said:


> Pretty easy to determine, even without any chemicals. If it's gold, it should be quite ductile----so try hitting it with a hammer. If it stays intact, but flattens well, it's gold, or most likely is gold. If it shatters, surely you've heard the term "fool's gold"?
> 
> Harold


The pieces are very small and seem flat already. Comparing it to the two other vials I have, it seem promising. Thank You very much. Water72


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## goldsilverpro (Oct 10, 2007)

All in all, I like Harold's method. It's the old KISS method. No matter how small it is, you should be able to try and flatten it by tapping it once with a small clean smooth hammer on a piece of clean smooth steel. Be careful or you'll lose it. Very small pieces are likely to stick to the face of your hammer. Hit it once, fairly gently, keeping the hammer face on the steel. Then tilt the face very slowly and look at it. You may have to tap it again. If you can't see what has happened, before and after, use a magnifier. I have flattened .0001 gram assay beads and I would bet that they were smaller than your pieces. I could barely see them, even when I had good eyes.

If you have the chemicals, you could put a piece of it in an empty clean vial and add a drop of aqua regia. You may have to put the bottom of the vial in a glass of hot tap water to get it going. You need to dissolve a little of the gold? in the acid. After a minute or two or three, add a drop of stannous chloride test solution or a small crystal of stannous chloride. If gold is present, the solution will turn purple or, if a lot has dissolved, it may turn black. Note that this test only tells you if gold *is* present. If too much silver is in the gold, nothing may dissolve and the test will show no color. If the piece immediately reacts vigorously in the acid, you may have pyrite but, I would test it anyway. Pyrite will give off a sulfur smell in the acids. Don't put your nose over the vial. To smell it safely, wave the fumes, with your hand, towards your nose. You could instead use hydrochloric (muriatic) acid and bleach (definitely warm the vial in the hot water), if you don't have nitric for the aqua regia. However, it will take longer to dissolve.

You could also make a mark with the piece on a touchstone and test it with test acids.

If you don't like the hammer idea and, if you don't have any of the chemicals, I don't know what to tell you. Maybe someone else has some other ideas.

I thought of something else. If you have a microscope or a strong magnifier, look to see if it is well rounded on the edges. If it is, it could likely be gold. Nuggets don't have sharp edges or facets. They've been bouncing around in the water, over the eons, and this rounds them.


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## badastro (Oct 10, 2007)

If you want to tell the difference between metal and fool's gold, you can try heating the sample to red heat. As the sample gets hotter, it will smoke and smell of sulfur. Gold and other metals will not smoke or smell.


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## Anonymous (Oct 10, 2007)

goldsilverpro said:


> All in all, I like Harold's method. It's the old KISS method. No matter how small it is, you should be able to try and flatten it by tapping it once with a small clean smooth hammer on a piece of clean smooth steel. Be careful or you'll lose it. Very small pieces are likely to stick to the face of your hammer. Hit it once, fairly gently, keeping the hammer face on the steel. Then tilt the face very slowly and look at it. You may have to tap it again. If you can't see what has happened, before and after, use a magnifier. I have flattened .0001 gram assay beads and I would bet that they were smaller than your pieces. I could barely see them, even when I had good eyes.
> 
> If you have the chemicals, you could put a piece of it in an empty clean vial and add a drop of aqua regia. You may have to put the bottom of the vial in a glass of hot tap water to get it going. After a minute or two or three, add a drop of stannous chloride test solution or a small crystal of stannous chloride. If gold is present, the solution will turn purple or, if a lot has dissolved, it may turn black. Note that this test only tells you if gold *is* present. If too much silver is in the gold, nothing may dissolve and the test will show no color. If the piece immediately reacts vigorously in the acid, you may have pyrite but, I would test it anyway. Pyrite will give off a sulfur smell in the acids. Don't put your nose over the vial. To smell it safely, wave the fumes, with your hand, towards your nose. You could instead use hydrochloric (muriatic) acid and bleach (definitely warm the vial in the hot water), if you don't have nitric for the aqua regia. However, it will take longer to dissolve.
> 
> ...




Thank You for the input, the more and more I compare it to what I know is gold, the more I believe what I have is real. Thank you very much for the input and I am renewing my interests in the fascinating world of gold.
water72


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## Anonymous (Oct 10, 2007)

Thank you for the input, the more and more I compare it to what I know is gold, the more I believe what I have is real. Thank you again and I am renewing my interests in the fascinating world of gold. Water72


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## Joe (Oct 10, 2007)

Show a picture!


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## Harold_V (Oct 11, 2007)

water72 said:


> The pieces are very small and seem flat already. Comparing it to the two other vials I have, it seem promising. Thank You very much. Water72



Cool! 

That's a good sign you have gold. Fine particles of gold from alluvial deposits are generally found in that exact configuration. Next test is to grip a piece with fine tweezers, then bend it with another tweezers. If it bends, it's gold.. If it shatters, it's not, 

Pretty simple. 

If you have the slightest reason to suspect it's brass (not likely unless it was planted), test one with a drop of nitric acid and a drop of water. If it dissolves, it's not gold. The nitric may enhance the color if it's gold, however. 

GSP's recommendation for a stannous chloride test is the proper one, assuming you have the chemicals. If the flakes have the least bit of yellow color, it's not likely silver will prevent dissolution for the simple test. That's due to the thin cross section of the flakes. 

Harold


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## Anonymous (Oct 11, 2007)

I tried bending a larger piece, it did not shatter and picture did not turn out so well. Maybe I will try it again when I get time, going up north this evening for fun weekend, hopefully I will have time to look for more of the yellow stuff. Water72


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## Harold_V (Oct 11, 2007)

If the pieces you found came from panning, things look pretty good. 

There's one thing that can confuse you quickly, and I forgot to make mention. Often you will find flakes of mica that are discolored by iron, so they look like gold. There's one big difference in that mica is very light by comparison. It won't respond well to being hit with a hammer, but won't necessarily shatter. It will, however, not stay intact, unlike gold flakes. They might even withstand a bending without breaking----dunno, never tried it, but it is my opinion they will not. Being much lighter than gold, you'd be unlikely to recover them in the panning process.

If you have a torch, one that can be adjusted so it's not real violent, one other test you can perform is to attempt to melt one of the flakes. If it's gold, when it melts, it will bead, and will remain fairly shiny, depending on the contaminants contained within. The ball would then be easy to flatten again. 

Harold


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## Anonymous (Oct 11, 2007)

The gold in question I seperated from black sand, and is very shinny. I will try the torch method. Hopefully I can recover some this weekend, and be able to try the hammer and torch trick. Thanks again, Water72


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## DeadDOG (Oct 28, 2007)

just post a picture i can tell from the piture if its gold or not.
and if its anything bigger then say a then this "C" do not smash it or melt it gold nuggets are worth more then there wait in pure gold.

Gold nuggets are very rare and worth much more than the regular price of gold. Gold nuggets will often be worth between 1.5 and 2 times more than the normal value of gold.

so do not smash or melt your rare gold nuggets.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBjTnKO_AyA
me panning some gold.


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## DeadDOG (Oct 28, 2007)

and yes sometimes gold is not smoth and round sometimes it sharp and jagged. just depends on where and how you found it. look up gold nuggets on the internet.


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## tlcarrig (Nov 14, 2007)

Nubie here to this forum. Man, your picture sure looks like gooood gold to me. Wish I could get that much color from a pan.


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## aflacglobal (Nov 14, 2007)

well what do you know. Welcome to the forum springville.


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