Silver nugget fake or fact?

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stella polaris

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 11, 2018
Messages
390
Hi!

I am curious about a silver nugget that is up for sale here in Norway. I am not interested to buy it but i never seen such silver nugget. Do not look like the native silver I have seen.

It is stated its from a mine in North America and very rare. Price is 1000$ for a 28 gram nugget.

So what you think? Is it a rare specimen or a fake? Or is it Electrum?

https://www.finn.no/bap/forsale/ad.html?finnkode=169585638

Edit US-North America
 
I have no idea about this particular item, but metallic silver in filigrane crystals,
was found in Kongsberg Norway when the mine there was active.
These would be quite valuable too I guess.

Picture from an encyclopedia:
Silver kongsberg.jpg
 
I found that there also is Electrum which is an alloy between Gold and Silver.
Looks quite like the specimen you saw at Finn
Picture from Kongsberg:
Electrum Kongsberg.jpg
 
@Yggdrasil

Thats the native silver i know.

Realised i spelled electrum wrong so i corrected it. Yes electrum looks more like it. Perhaps the guy do not knows about it.
 
Talked to him. He say its tested and showed pure silver.

@ Göran.
As a collector what do you say. Are there such native silver?
 
The picture isn't as good as you would wish but it might be natural. The price is out of this world though.
It always fascinate me when someone is trying to sell something with a blurry picture, but the difference in price a decent picture would make would pay for several cameras.

I actually have something similar from Kongsberg, I'll check if I can find it.

I did a quick search on Mindat.org for US silver specimens but I didn't have stamina to look through all 627 pictures.
This looked a bit similar, weight 140 gram https://www.mindat.org/photo-18064.html

Anyone that wants to search through the image archive can do it at https://www.mindat.org/gallery.php?frm_id=pager&cform_is_valid=1&min=3664&loc=&u=&potd=&pco=&d=&showtype=1&phototype=0&checkall=0&filtmin=0&filtassoc=0&filtcountry=USA&loctxt=&keywords=&orderxby=0&submit_pager=Filter+Search

Göran
 
You're using better search terms than me Goran.

I tried all sorts and didn't get anything. 8) 8)
 
Nah, I've just been a member and editor on that site for the last 10 years. Didn't use any search engines at all.
https://www.mindat.org/user-49755.html

Göran
 
Chris Ralph (Reno Chris on GRF) had a good article on native silver in the February 2020 issue
of ICMJ ( Prospecting and MIning Journal).
Someone might be able to persuade him to lend his expertise to this thread.
 
He contacted me and said he had more and smaller nuggets as well.

The guy is very expensive in all items he sells. He is fishing for people without knowledge. In short he ask for 50% more, than the value, of gold coins and bar he sells. he is very active so it probably works.
 
Talking about silver... Current bid with 1.5 h left 1500 euro.
At least the pictures are better than that Norwegian auction.
https://e-rocks.com/item/wnd774826/silver?sid=1b8c1845bf29c72b22313e17f63c46b6

Göran
 
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