Calculator from the mid seventies

[archeonist]

Found this calculator in an old box in the basement. I almost threw it away, but than I realised that this is just an old computer from the seventies. And old computers contain relatively a lot of gold. Well this is what I saw when I opened the calculator. Very thick gold lines in it and you can really feel the thickness of the lines when you feel it with your finger. Is there anyone here who has processed such calculators? I am really interested in the yield of this.

 

[goldenchild]

Did you look into selling it as a collectors item before taking it apart?

 

[goldsilverpro]

Underneath the gold is nickel plating and a thick copper layer. The total of these 3 metal layers is what you're feeling. I would estimate that the gold weight is only about 2-4% of the total. If you can figure the total number of square inches of gold plated area, it will probably run about $.50/square inch in gold, or less. On the old stuff, the gold plating is not necessarily thicker than on the new stuff. There's just more of it. In 2012, it takes the same thickness of gold to protect critical areas as it did in 1970. And, no electronic manufacturer has ever wasted gold.

A similar situation exists on the metal base of the glass bowl you discussed in another thread. If it is gold, there will be nickel plating and maybe copper plating underneath it. When you peeled it off, what color was the back side of the plating? Also, on decorative items, the gold plating will generally be thinner than on electronics.

 

[archeonist]

@goldenchild, yes I have looked what the price is for these kind of calculators. They are being sold at auctions in my country for no more than around 5 dollars each.

@goldsilverpro, I am not shocked by your answer, I expected something like that.

 

[goldsilverpro]

I guess the moral of this is: Visual or tactile information is almost totally worthless when determining the gold value of any gold plated object. About the old exception is that gold plating of a very pale color is usually quite thin.

 

[MMFJ]

Found this calculator in an old box in the basement. I almost threw it away, but than I realised that this is just an old computer from the seventies. And old computers contain relatively a lot of gold. Well this is what I saw when I opened the calculator. Very thick gold lines in it and you can really feel the thickness of the lines when you feel it with your finger. Is there anyone here who has processed such calculators? I am really interested in the yield of this.

You stated a good answer in a later post when you said

for no more than around 5 dollars each

- certainly the yield on any one piece as scrap will be much (MUCH) lower than that - more likely to be pennies.

To me, if it is typically selling for $5 and it is not difficult to ship, etc., I'd take the $5 and put it in a bucket (where the calculator was, along with the other scrap) and keep selling the bits until you have enough to go get a gram or two of the real stuff! Realize that, even if this calculator would yield .10g (unlikely) that you would still lose money trying to refine it because of the cost of chemicals, etc.

Never, NEVER scrap anything that you could sell quickly for cash to someone that can use it - you will "always" make more money! (I say that in quotes because there are extremely rare instances it may not be true - I have only seen a few examples in nearly 17 years of selling used equipment where the scrap was worth more than some user was willing to pay for it!)

 

[archeonist]

@MMFJ, thanks for the advise!

 

[macfixer01]

Here's an interesting page for information about old calculators. Take what you see with a grain of salt though, some of these models apparently went through several generations of design. I got burned on 2 Singer Friden EC1117 calculators. Both had black plastic chips, not the nice gold and ceramic chips seen in the pictures on this website.

http://oldcalculatormuseum.com/index.html

macfixer01

 

[archeonist]

Great site, thanks!