✅ SOLVED Found this doing yard work. I believe it is natural platinum. But?????

[IAMKNOW1]

I was doing some yard work about a year ago and found what looked like a fossil to me and having always loved different rocks & minerals I brought it in the house. Doing some more yard work I began to notice there was A LOT of rocks in this yard. I can dig down 3 feet or so and have river rocks start filling my hole back up with little to no dirt. I started looking at some of these and I could see gold & pyrite, silver, gray to dark gray to metals in a lot of them. Now I am landscaping and breaking rocks. I picked up the old fossil & noticed gold & silver color in it so I decided to break it open and this is what I found. The nugget weighs 97.7 gr's & I tried your torch test. 20 minutes later & the tip of the nugget wasnt even red yet. I let it cool down & it looked like it had never seen a torch. I have a couple magnets that will really pinch your fingers & it just barely stuck to it. The complete piece weighs 1.74lbs. I washed it off after breaking it out of it's casing and glued it back together for the pictures. I have never seen anything like it in 50 years and was hoping someone on here could just verify what I think I have found. Thank you very much in advance, I can't wait to read your answers. T.

 

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[boris]

I find things like that ,and its looks too good to be aluminum.I have seen it not really tarnish at all. Your "rock" looks like an old mold and your nugget looks like a value metal in my opinion.

 

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[smokeythecat]

Try to do a homemade specific gravity test. Weight in air versus weight in water. That will give you the specific gravity. You may have some type of scale you can use.

 

[smokeythecat]

Also platinum or gold or silver will be heavy. Aluminum will be very light.

 

[Breezie]

Is any part of the 'mold rock' magnetic? A while back I read an article about meteorites having platinum, gold, and silver in their core. Of all the pics I've seen online, your find looks like platinum. Have you had it tested yet? Have you broken anymore fossil like rocks to see if there is more in your garden? Breezie

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

Id like to know how you "broke" this "rock" perfectly in half? And where is the other half? ...or did you only find one half?

 

[rhami]

If I were you, I would take it to any jeweler or coin dealer. They should have an acid testing kit in their store and they will be able to tell you what type of metal it is.

Bob

 

[smokeythecat]

Do you have one of those little gram scales? Weigh your object. Then put a very small lightweight plastic cup on the scale and put enough water in it to cover the item. Zero out the scale. Now hang the nugget in the water. Don't let it touch the sides or bottom of the cup. I think the formula is weight in air divided b weight in water. If not, it's the exact opposite to give you specific gravity. Boy, I used to know this stuff....

 

[JmCraz8]

Interesting!!

 

[Breezie]

Id like to know how you "broke" this "rock" perfectly in half? And where is the other half? ...or did you only find one half?

Great question! Breezie

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

I would imagine you have already had a possible $25,000 find tested by the end of the day today but telling us the results would ruin all the fun lol.

 

[IAMKNOW1]

I am taking it to the University Mon AM (literally 3 blocks away) & have the Geology Dept look at it. On a different note, I didn't break it "perfectly in half. I dig up a lot of rocks here (thousands+) and several look like they have been cut. It happens when glaciers cut they're path down a mountain. That's what I was told anyway. Someone else asked me why I thought it was platinum and long story short is lots & lots of reading and field tests. Thank you everyone for your input, I will be happy to share the news with you when I have the answers. Good or indifferent.
I'm wondering why no one has really questioned the crystals that surrounded the nugget. Here's an untouched pic of the crystals, with the exception of cropping it for a closeup, . The ones that stand up almost have a purple hue to them, like a poor quality of amethyst, but they are in a column or row and if I used 4 I's to represent 4 crystals in the column (IIII) the two crystals on the left face each other & then the two on the right would be facing ea other & that type of rotation continues on like that. Not sure if that really makes any sense or not. These are also on on the "bottom" of the rock. Sitting on top of those is a grayish type crystal with thousands of silver colored balls laid in it, this is what directly covered the nugget itself. And last and also the majority of crystal is pure white with no real distinctive shapes to it at all. Maybe an occasional silver ball, that's it.

 

[Breezie]

I hope you don't take my comments/questions as me being skeptical, but there are some aspects I don't understand. I am taking it to the University Mon AM (literally 3 blocks away)In your first post, you said you found this a year ago. If you live only 3 blocks away from the University, why haven't you been to the Geology Dept. before now especially if you think/thought it was Platinum? & have the Geology Dept look at it. On a different note, I didn't break it "perfectly in half. I dig up a lot of rocks here (thousands+) and several look like they have been cut. So was this already cut as we see it in the photo? It happens when glaciers cut they're path down a mountain. That's what I was told anyway. Someone else asked me why I thought it was platinum and long story short is lots & lots of reading and field tests. Again, if you thought it was Platinum, why haven't you had it tested within the last year? Thank you everyone for your input, I will be happy to share the news with you when I have the answers. Good or indifferent.
I'm wondering why no one has really questioned the crystals that surrounded the nugget. I didn't ask any questions about this, but I did ask 2 questions earlier; they were: #1 Is any part of the 'mold rock' magnetic? The other question was: Have you broken anymore fossil like rocks to see if there is more in your garden? Here's an untouched pic, with the exception of cropping, of the crystals. The ones that stand up almost have a purple hue to them, like a poor quality of amethyst, but they are in a column or row and if I used 4 I's to represent 4 crystals in the column (IIII) the two crystals on the left face each other & then the two on the right would be facing ea other & that type of rotation continues on like that. Not sure if that really makes any sense or not. These are also on on the "bottom" of the rock. Sitting on top of those is a grayish type crystal with thousands of silver colored balls laid in it, this is what directly covered the nugget itself. And last and also the majority of crystal is pure white with no real distinctive shapes to it at all. Maybe an occasional silver ball, that's it. I look forward to hearing the report from the University.

Breezie

 

[Broken knee]

I used a propane torch with a rose bud tip for 20 mins. It didn't phase it. It does' look like a mold, but I can assure you this was all done by Mother nature. I have several other rocks I have found that look identical to the casing that was directly covering the nugget. I just added a pic of one of those pieces. The crystals all look metallic as well...??

JMO From what I see the the ring of silver or gray color that I circled is from the investment material being porous, and absorbing the metal during casting. HH
BK

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

Its hard to see the crystals you speak of but I am not a rock person. I know very little about rocks. But if it was me, I would have had the metal tested. Did you try Nitric Acid?

I didnt mean to imply that you actually cut it in half. I thought it was a clue that it broke almost perfectly in half like a mould.

 

[IAMKNOW1]

Breezie

When I found the rock that contained the nugget, I didnt know it had a nugget in it. I displayed it in the house for a year or so because it looked like a fossil to me. I never even considered having the "fossil" looked at. After finding gold here, I took a closer look at the "fossil" rock & saw gold in it, realized it wasn't a fossil & decided to break it open. I then broke it open looking for gold & found something different. This is a true story! I hope this helps any confusion.

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

When I found the rock that contained the nugget, I didnt know it had a nugget in it. I displayed it in the house for a year or so because it looked like a fossil to me. I never even considered having the "fossil" looked at. After finding gold here, I took a closer look at the "fossil" rock & saw gold in it, realized it wasn't a fossil & decided to break it open. I then broke it open looking for gold & found something different. This is a true story! I hope this helps any confusion.

I believe you but I was just curious where the other half is that broke off? Is it in pieces?

 

[Breezie]

When I found the rock that contained the nugget, I didnt know it had a nugget in it. I displayed it in the house for a year or so because it looked like a fossil to me. I never even considered having the "fossil" looked at. After finding gold here, I took a closer look at the "fossil" rock & saw gold in it, realized it wasn't a fossil & decided to break it open. I then broke it open looking for gold & found something different. This is a true story! I hope this helps any confusion.

Thanks for explaining; it makes perfect sense now. I look forward to hearing the test results. Breezie

 

[CoinFetcher]

I seriously have all the acids we would need to test this - let me know through a PM- I live in Seattle

 

[IAMKNOW1]

Hi,
No, I checked the different crystals with my high powered magnet and didn't get any reaction at all. And yes I have broken other rocks open that look similar to no avail, but only if I'm sure it's not a fossil or possible artifact. Yea, I'm a 50 yr old man who never really grew up, but did manage to somehow grow a bit wiser. Oh, flat one sided almost polished rocks that look like they have been cut are fairly common here. They are formed by glaciers cutting down the rock as it drags it along with it down a mountain.

 

[wvwildman]

howed them test go on tha nugget today?