What is this? Lead? Platinum?

[NeoTokyo]

Heya everyone;

I have found a lot of little silver slugs that are heavy and very flexible over the last month and a half while underwater sniping.
These bits are ALWAYS with gold and I usually toss them aside though I have brough a few bits home.

If you break/bend one in half it is silver inside too.

So what the heck is it?!

Thanks.


(Two pics processed just a little different to show this slug a little better.)

 

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[Mach1Racer]

It's some kind of silvery metal. -

 

[NeoTokyo]

lol, nice to see that you have finally joined up.

 

[Mtldealer]

It looks a lot like lead. Brass and copper would turn green like that in the water. The fact that it is malleable would have me guessing lead. Be careful handling it.

 

[NeoTokyo]

Thanks Mtldealer, thats what we thought.

So I take it that this is lead in its natural "Nugget" form?
I know natural lead like this is really rare, so would this really be natural lead or lead from human activity that has been beaten to death in the creek over the years?
All of the lead that I find like this is always like this, all other lead that I have found has been in man made splitshot/ball shape or bullets, some really nice bullets.

 

[NeoTokyo]

Ok, so I just found out about the streak test on the bottom of an unglazed cup.
I took the nugget and a sinker, the nugget came out darker than the sinker, granted it is probably a more recent sinker so there are other metals mixed in.

Anyways, being that it came out a dark gray I think that pretty much says that it is lead.


So what do I do with this stuff? Remove it from the creek whenever I find it?

 

[PYRATE]

You shouldn't leave it there as it is harmful to man and wild

Collect it in a separate container and handle it as little as possible, especially if you are around females and children as lead stays in the body and causes the most harm to developing brains and unborn babies. Supposedly exposing a little girl to lead will harm the babies she'll have decades later.

You can "donate" it to the scrap lead bin at an indoor firing range or tire shop, take it to a recycling center or scrap yard (value is only 30 cents a pound or less) or throw it away. Environmentally speaking, it is best not to throw it away, but it is far better for it to be in a landfill than a stream.

 

[Hoser John]

Simply chuck it in a bucket and wait till ya got quite a bit and recycle it-John--forget the hysteria as one of the safest stable metals on the planet

 

[NeoTokyo]

I just chew on it a bit while I am in the water till I get out, its just sooo damn sweet. MAN THOSE ROMANS WERE ON TO SOMETHING!





Oh course I am joking.
I will pick it up whenever I find it, I have been taking all other clearly man molded lead out of the creek since I started, just not this stuff.

Thanks for the replies guys.