1st find beach detecting. Maybe Gold...probably not

[Ukr_Newb]

Spent a week at the beach with my wife and tried metal detecting for the first time, found a bunch of clad coins and fishing sinkers. Then on the last day I found this and at first thought it might be an old toy car or car pendant but after cleaning it a bit it seems to be some sort of buckle. On the underside it's got this little hook (bottom of 3rd picture) which initially made me think it was a pendant.

I got excited about the color and thought it might be some sort old gold item, but Im not getting my hopes up since there's oxidation and I know gold doesn't oxidize. Anyone knows what this is? How old is it? Any ideas would be helpful.



P.S. The coin I found as I was walking out of Wal-Mart (same beach vacation in FL) and checked the Coinstar reject slot. I used it for size reference. If nothing else I found some silver.

 

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[CRUSADER]

Looks brass but a brass what?

 

[nhbenz]

Miniature stapler is my guess so far... No, that doesn't make sense...?

 

[Ukr_Newb]

How can I determine the type of metal? I already checked and it's not magnetic; the bright strip that's on the underside (pic 3) is pretty malleable.

 

[CRUSADER]

How can I determine the type of metal? I already checked and it's not magnetic; the bright strip that's on the underside (pic 3) is pretty malleable.

Gold & silver acid test kits are very cheap, but I wouldn't bother because I can tell its not gold. But if you buy a kit for about £15 with postage, you could use it on other pieces.

 

[cudamark]

Maybe a latch for the lid of a case?

 

[capt-zero]

Save yourself the money for a complete kit. You can get the acid cheaply on ebay and use a good quality oilstone for the rub marks. My brother uses a flat piece of porcelain he got from a light fixture. I've been using 10k solution and an old arkansas stone for years to good purpose. The 10k solution runs about 2-3 dollars a bottle and it lasts a long time.

 

[Ukr_Newb]

Why is it still so shiny? It seems pretty old and was exposed to tons of sand and salt water, I would think it would get much more oxidized.

Latch to a lid of something seems the most likely.