1lb 13oz Silversmith Silver Bar! (I think hehe)

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itzyoboyandrew

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May 13, 2015
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Found this bar at an 1830s house, had been there before (but with a crappy metal detector...) Used my bounty hunter lone star pro today... (still not the best of metal detectors, but it works for my liking.) Found 2 more Ball mason jar lids (found 3 last time...) When i got a "Coin" signal.. Started digging.. and digging... 1ft down later, on the sides of the hole i hit this object, thought it was a can based on the tiny bit i saw. Pulled it out (well pried it out.) And i have this weight i thought, immediately thought lead because it was SO heavy for its size.. So i got home and decided to test it... (Mom said it didnt look like lead.. shes regretting saying that now because of my persistence! :laughing7:"

It passed a bleach tarnish test, acid test (my acid test is weird) and i tried melting it.. I took a lead weight and this thing, put the solder on the lead weight for 45seconds... it melted some off (not alot but it was noticeable..) did 45seconds on the bar, nothing. My dad said try to melt a shaved down part which i did... 45 seconds later... no melting...

I also think this was made by an actual sivlersmith. Why? Well it has a various amount of hammered dents on most sides.. Of varying sizes of hammers (or whatever tool was used.) Like someone was trrying to carve it? or shape it? Even if its not silver, still cool IMO..

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Note: If you have any tests for me to try, ill do them.. im intrigued..
 

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The way you know for sure: Step 1 spit on it, Step 2 shake a few grains of salt on it, Step 3 rub it a little with aluminum foil. If it you start smelling rotten eggs it's silver. The rotten egg smell is caused by aluminum sulfide which gets produced when silver tarnish reacts with aluminum.
 

WHADIFIND said:
Can't know about a find of a "lifetime" until the end. But, I suspect you could retire on it. If you cashed it and put it into an account paying compound interest for oh, say, 100 years.

It certainly would be considered a find of a lifetime, for me! :)
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Lol, 21lbs of silver would only be worth around 5K nowadays, hardly enough to retire on. But hey if prices go back up to what they were in 2011 - that's close to 20K worth of silver - a great amount of money that if invested wisely could certainly aid in a retirement plan :D
 

UnderMiner said:
The way you know for sure: Step 1 spit on it, Step 2 shake a few grains of salt on it, Step 3 rub it a little with aluminum foil. If it you start smelling rotten eggs it's silver. The rotten egg smell is caused by aluminum sulfide which gets produced when silver tarnish reacts with aluminum.
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Well ill do it tomorrow... Dont really want to smell rotten eggs but ill try it haha
 

My guess is lead, but I could be wrong. The melting point of solder is 370 degrees, so that's not hard to melt. But the melting points of lead (621 degrees), zinc (787 degrees) and silver (1,763 degrees) are much higher.

Did you try melting a piece with a soldering gun or a propane torch? A soldering gun probably won't melt lead, zinc or silver, since it only heats up to 600 degrees or so. But a propane torch should melt any of those metals, since it's around 3600 degrees.
 

Last try you can do is the Spit test.

Grab some aluminum foil. Spit on the bar, rub the aluminum foil on the bar where the spit is (connecting the aluminum and the wet bar), and let it sit for 20 seconds or so. If it's silver, when you pull up the aluminum and SMELL it, it'll stink something nasty (you can try this on your silver dime, to confirm, versus, say a stainless steel spoon).

You've got all the other tricks done (including the powder test!).

Cheers, and congrats on a cool find!

Skippy
 

Borrow someone's Ace 250 (or better) metal detector. Lead rings up on the low end on my Ace 250 (no higher than a penny signal), while silver rings up on the far right side of the display.
 

You found a piece of lead. Wish it was silver but its not. Lead forms that whitish/yellowish patina you have on your find. Take a knife and try to cut off a corner, my bet it will go pretty easy.
 

Last edited:
Perses said:
You found a piece of lead. Wish it was silver but its not. Lead forms that whitish/yellowish patina you have on your find. Take a knife and try to cut off a corner, my bet it will go pretty easy.
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Naaaaah! Lead fails the powder test. ;) LOL
 

WHADIFIND said:
Naaaaah! Lead fails the powder test. ;) LOL
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No idea what a powder test is, but it aint that hard to tell lead and silver apart. Especially when the item is so darn big, if it was a tiny piece it might be more difficult but this brick of a find hasnt spent a minute next to a pound of silver.
 

Perses said:
No idea what a powder test is, but it aint that hard to tell lead and silver apart. Especially when the item is so darn big, if it was a tiny piece it might be more difficult but this brick of a find hasnt spent a minute next to a pound of silver.
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My oh my! SOOoooo positive! May I quote you on this? Maybe, not "next" to a pound of silver, but it has enough to be in it's own company. ;) LOL

You may not know the powder test but there's something else you don't know. You don't "KNOW" if this is silver....and.....neither do i. :)
 

WHADIFIND said:
My oh my! SOOoooo positive! May I quote you on this? Maybe, not "next" to a pound of silver, but it has enough to be in it's own company. ;) LOL

You may not know the powder test but there's something else you don't know. You don't "KNOW" if this is silver....and.....neither do i. :)
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You might not know, but I do. If this IS silver, I wont post anything on Tnet for 2 months, how does that sound?
 

Perses said:
You might not know, but I do. If this IS silver, I wont post anything on Tnet for 2 months, how does that sound?
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A bit like sadism. LOL You mean, you would actually stop posting!?!? Because of this????

LOL
 

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