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[mark93cobr]

I have been busting my knuckles on these pins in my spare time over the last couple of months. Can you guys tell me what I might come up with if I go ahead and try to refine this stuff myself? Would you think I might be better off to sell it on ebay and try to raise a bit of Cash??? All the pins are solid plated, no nickel or otherwise showing, all gold. Do some pins have a higher quality plating than others? Any help is very much appreciated. Mark

 

[dtectr]

Best case?

1/2 of 1 percent by weight.

 

[niteliteone]

Hello Mark,
Welcome to GRF
Here you can find answers to just about any question you may ever come up with. 8)
But we do ask all members to do a little studying before trying to do any refining :shock: Thats right a little homework :shock: but it is good for all. That way we can speak a more common language when talking about refining precious metals. :mrgreen:
Look in the signature line of "Claudie" here on the forum and in his signature line you will find a link to "Refining Precious Metals by C.M. Hoke" A free pdf that you need to read to understand what we do here.

With that said, on to your questions If you want to learn how to recover and REFINE gold you have a decent item to start with although fingers would be an easier "First Time" job.
It is really "What do you" want at this time? :shock: A fast profit or a little more time invested to learn how to recover and refine the gold that you have.
Tom C.

 

[Claudie]

You might start searching for "Pin Yield" in the search box. Be sure to check out the "Guided Tour" link in my sig line too. There is a ton of information here waiting to be read.

 

[johnny309]

Weight is not important.....sorry for this.....
The plating is important.....meanning ....lenght,width..and the "thick"(which I presume is 30 microinches)....all multiplied by the density of pure gold...

The pins can be 5 grams(of copper...most of it) ....with only 1 or 2 miligrams of gold on it or can be 1 gram with 1 or 2 miligrams of gold on it.

EDIT: if a piece(pins) is very thick(mostly copper by weight)......and the nickel is there,because ....gold would migrate towards copper(nickel barrier) and ....from my point of view(until you see a hollow pins,after AP process.....you see the platting "thickness")

As an example ...imagine a bussbar plated with silver......small or thick they have the same platting thickness...they weight of the buss bar being different(only by the mass of copper)

 

[BOMBOVA]

HI from Vancouver Canada. bin a pin refiner for some time, amphanol connector pins, 75 microns, and as a poster has said, 1/2 of 1 percent by weight. in optimum refining of 98 percent refining efficiency .. So, educated guess, 30 microns, and your pins have brighteners, in them, say 1990 pins, nickel is in that gold plate. say 1/6 of 1 percent. with 75 percent refining efficiency. "take a quarter as loss in this calculation " and a lot of hard work. Note, i am sitting on 35 lbs, of 75 micron pins of late 60's, and it is hard work. Cheers.

 

[goldsilverpro]

HI from Vancouver Canada. bin a pin refiner for some time, amphanol connector pins, 75 microns, and as a poster has said, 1/2 of 1 percent by weight. in optimum refining of 98 percent refining efficiency .. So, educated guess, 30 microns, and your pins have brighteners, in them, say 1990 pins, nickel is in that gold plate. say 1/6 of 1 percent. with 75 percent refining efficiency. "take a quarter as loss in this calculation " and a lot of hard work. Note, i am sitting on 35 lbs, of 75 micron pins of late 60's, and it is hard work. Cheers.

I think you mean "microinches" instead of "microns." A "microinch" is one millionth of an inch and a "micron" is 40 millionths of an inch. Many of the pins are gold plated 30 microinches thick = 3/4 micron.