# Is there any value seen in this picture?



## drtyTshrt (Oct 23, 2013)

There is some gold.


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## chlaurite (Oct 23, 2013)

The switches at the top right, and those near the center, will most likely contain gold plated contacts.
The connector at the lower right may have gold plated pins (though the posts we can see from the back look like just copper).
The test points (?) (single large gold-colored pins) look promising.
The various jumpers will likely go on gold plated pins, and may themselves contain a gold plated pair of contacts.
I think I see at least one (silver colored) tantalum cap, but can't tell for sure.
The ICs will have gold bonding wires, but probably not even remotely worth the trouble.

I don't recognize the pair of silver-tipped teal cylinders slightly right of center, or the black rectangle with two white plugs in it a bit further right - Anyone have a clue about those?


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## solar_plasma (Oct 23, 2013)

I think I see at least two orange tantalum perl capacitors on the lower right and the TO-3 on the lower right has gold plating outside and inside, probably some gold bondwires and nice solder under the die, - maybe also a germanium solder ball (try to google its serial number,if it is a germanium transistor). But maybe also filled with insanely toxical berylliumoxide powder.


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## nivrnb (Oct 24, 2013)

drtyTshrt,

I did this quickly just to show you what I would take off of this board. The wires (copper) and aluminum are a given. I am sure I have missed something. But this is what I would go after.

Rob


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## macfixer01 (Oct 24, 2013)

chlaurite said:


> The switches at the top right, and those near the center, will most likely contain gold plated contacts.
> The connector at the lower right may have gold plated pins (though the posts we can see from the back look like just copper).
> The test points (?) (single large gold-colored pins) look promising.
> The various jumpers will likely go on gold plated pins, and may themselves contain a gold plated pair of contacts.
> ...




The teal-colored items are plastic spacer tubes underneath either transistors or IC's in metal-can type packages (also note the one with no spacer at the lower left). I can see the tabs on the two cans in the center are gold colored so they definitely have gold content. The black and white item at the right appears to be some sort of variable inductor and the white plastic pieces have screwdriver slots in them for adjusting ferrite slugs inside the block. There's likely nothing of value in that. I save all the black chips that contain visible gold inside (should really save all I suppose in case of gold bonding wires). If you were pyrolizing flat packs it'd be not much extra work to add them to the batch. In any case it's quite likely those two gray plastic (or ceramic) topped chips in the upper center portion of the photo contain a little gold. Also that looks like a nice silver tantalum capacitor in-between the irregulary shaped yellow and two orange tantalum capacitors at the lower right. I've seen some people claim those thin blue and white resistor networks like the two at the top right corner contain palladium, I don't know? There is a big power transistor (or maybe voltage regulator) in the oval shaped heatsink at the lower right corner which has gold plating on it's package. Last but not least, it looks like there may be two power transistors mounted on each of those two black heatsink plates, at the left center and left side. They may or may not contain some gold.

macfixer01


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## drtyTshrt (Oct 24, 2013)

Thanks for the replies. I started dimantelling yesterday and beleive it or not The plug ons for the wires appear to be solid gold not plated. I can get my hands on about 10 more of these.
I guess it is fair to say this is a high yield board.


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## solar_plasma (Oct 24, 2013)

```
appear to be solid gold not plated
```

it is gold plated brass and/or the gold smeared over the basemetal inside when you have cutted them, - it is never solid gold

just measure it's density, - you will see


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## rucito (Oct 24, 2013)

Hello all


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## drtyTshrt (Oct 24, 2013)

solar_plasma said:


> ```
> appear to be solid gold not plated
> ```
> 
> ...



Ahh. Thanks.
I need to open my mind a bit more.


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## solar_plasma (Oct 24, 2013)

solar:


> maybe also a germanium solder ball



Mistake: Not germanium, it was an indium solder ball ...at least in older transistors


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## Salburr (Mar 24, 2017)

this is an old thread, but I am still back-reading all of them..... the picture of the board with the yellow circles on it labels the s small transistors right at the front netter as gold bearing? I have not seen that in any other posts and have been ignoring them on my boards as I strip. Worth clipping? throw in with chips??


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## goldsilverpro (Mar 24, 2017)

The only solid gold objects you'll find in electronics are the yellow bonding wires attached to the chip on ICs. A troy ounce of those wires will be either 2 or 4 miles long, depending on their diameter.


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