Did I finally find some gold?

[Diepud]

Complete amateur here. Once a year I try to take a trip to look for treasure of some sort. Never any finds, but that's not the point for me. This year I panned clear creek canyon in Colorado and believe I found a small nugget or flake--first one. However out of the sun is less impressive. Worse, it's very weakly magnetic on the golden side and more so on the silver side. What's the verdict? Do I start bragging to my friends or tuck my tail in shame. Thanks!

 

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[southfork]

Complete amateur here. Once a year I try to take a trip to look for treasure of some sort. Never any finds, but that's not the point for me. This year I panned clear creek canyon in Colorado and believe I found a small nugget or flake--first one. However out of the sun is less impressive. Worse, it's very weakly magnetic on the golden side and more so on the silver side. What's the verdict? Do I start bragging to my friends or tuck my tail in shame. Thanks!

I'm not seeing gold, but I have old eyes

 

[Goldfinger450]

Sorry friend I do not see gold or silver. Possibly a deformed .22 bullet or pellet? If you can get a really good macro lens photo it would help us Older folks. Best of luck to you out there.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

Sorry, not seeing gold.

 

[Diepud]

Sorry friend I do not see gold or silver. Possibly a deformed .22 bullet or pellet? If you can get a really good macro lens photo it would help us Older folks. Best of luck to you out there.

I appreciate the replies. It looked so shiny in the pan. It's tough to get a good picture but here is another of the probably not gold flake.

 

[Ohiogoldfever]

I appreciate the replies. It looked so shiny in the pan. It's tough to get a good picture but here is another of the probably not gold flake.

Put it on something hard and tap tap tap it with a hammer. If it breaks it’s not gold.

If it smashes and deforms it could be gold. Easiest test I can think of off hand.

 

[Diepud]

Put it on something hard and tap tap tap it with a hammer. If it breaks it’s not gold.

If it smashes and deforms it could be gold. Easiest test I can think of off hand.

I did that and it just flattened out. However now it just looks like lead. Maybe a bit of gold color on the head of the hammer. Probably lead with a bit of something shiny on one side. Thanks for your advice

 

[russau]

My best friend went to Colorado awhile back and he went up Pike's Peek and while they were driving up the then gravel road they pulled over for some pics and low and behold he saw something sparkling on the road side and he thought GOLD and got a coffee cup out to scoop it up and bring it back to St. Louis Misery to show me , but when he called me to tell me of his GREAT FIND I had to chuckle...........When he got home I went over to see him and his "treasure" I panned it to show him about Pyrite (fool's gold). I hated to be the one that popped his bubble but that the way it goes !

 

[tamrock]

I use to live walking distance to the Arkansas River north of Buena Vista in the early 1980s. I would pan the river quite a bit and you would very often find lead shot in the pan. Back then there was a small pacer operation just down river from Granite and a guy I knew worked for the guy hand shoveling material into a sluice. I asked him if the guy he worked for was making and money and he said not so much and I remember the guy I knew saying something about some other rare earth metal they were recovering, found in the black sands. He couldn't remember what they called it. That conversation took place at the Lariat Bar social media site. I had found other weird metal things in the river and once found the busted tip of an aluminum airplane propeller about 24 inches long and 8 or so inches wide. It was all textured like it had been sand blasted as it was washed by the abrasive sands of the rushing river. It must of come down steam from some location of a plane crash I was thinking longbeforeI found it. I don't believe anyone is ever gonna find enough placer gold to make a living in the upper Arkansas river system, but you will find stone artifacts all along that river from Leadville to the state of Arkansas IMO. I put together a nice collection of finds from my time living there. Found that to be much more pleasing to do than look for itty-bitty pieces of gold. The real treasure to me of that area is the beautiful scenery all around. I still get to stop and take a little walk in the Pinon Pines and enjoy the sites and sounds of that country when I'm driving through, as I have now for 40+ years. The changes I've seen to the area by people has me a bit bummed though, but that's just how it all goes I've come to except. It's the memories I have now of the area I need to focus on instead of grumble about how all the newbies are turning it into a carnival with all the stuff they've added to enhance the experience of the area.

 

[Gold4Mike]

I have found yellowish colored lead that has fooled me before, until I look at it through a magnifier. That last picture looks a lot like that.

 

[ConceptualizedNetherlandr]

Complete amateur here. Once a year I try to take a trip to look for treasure of some sort. Never any finds, but that's not the point for me. This year I panned clear creek canyon in Colorado and believe I found a small nugget or flake--first one. However out of the sun is less impressive. Worse, it's very weakly magnetic on the golden side and more so on the silver side. What's the verdict? Do I start bragging to my friends or tuck my tail in shame. Thanks!

Anyone else see the long face in the center of the nugget? Middle pic.

Drop it in some acid. Gold should clean up, lead should oxidize white.

A bullet might have a cu flash or jacket, a jacket should peel off in places.

 

[N-Lionberger]

I have seen lead that has been iron oxide stained a yellow orange color from sitting together with rusting ferrous metals. I have also seen gold stained that way. I have seen gold stained brown black, had a neighbor that worked Hayfork Creek all his gold was black until he cleaned it up. I actually found a piece of stained lead fairly recently in a clean out that stumped both me and my claim partner for a few hours as it was mixed in with iron stained pickers.

 

[xr7ator]

Keep panning and sooner or later you'll find some mercury that more than likely will be attached to gold but it will be silver colored. Just small flakes for me but I have heard of people finding pockets of the silvery poison.