How can I safely remove leftover gold from old crucibles?

treasurehuntr2

treasurehuntr2

Jr. Member
May 21, 2006
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san francisco, ca.
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Hi all
I came upon about 25 crucibles while digging for bottles ( my first love ). I dont do alot of metal prospecting, and obviously dont have alot of knowledge where it's concerned. Thus my question regarding the crucibles. A friend told me he was sure the crucibles had probably done some melting of gold at some time because he could see the colors and leftover stuff in them, and that I should check in to getting them "cleaned out" to see if any gold was left. He spoke of doing this and doing that and I really didnt pay attention as I should have because it sounded so complicated.
I did remember he talked about using "flux" and also "borax". I have purchased both and have tried a couple of methods on a couple of the crucibles with a BIG fail, so I was wondering if any of my good friends here at Tnet would have any insight on the subject or could offer up any hopefully simple ways to do it.

I did retrieve the crucibles from an area on the San Francisco waterfront and they are definitely from the turn of the century when gold was a very popular topic around here! SO.... I THANK YOU ALL IN ADVANCE for anything you have to offer on this.

Blessings and Best of luck!
Th2
 

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You could just grind them to powder and pan out the powder. Simple and low tech.

The only used crucible I have seen did have a small amount of visible gold in the glassy flux at the bottom. To get it out we just heated it with an acetylene torch and poured it out!
 

That said you will most likely get more for them selling em here or on eBay...whole of course! A souvenir from the CA gold rush? Sounds cool!
 

KevinInColorado said:
That said you will most likely get more for them selling em here or on eBay...whole of course! A souvenir from the CA gold rush? Sounds cool!
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...........the gold rush was pretty much done by 1855.....they didnt use crucibles until later
 

I'd say to test one of them to obtain a value for the gold. You'd have two dozen left to sell, pass down to kids or whatever?
 

Kuger, you are the expert...but there was lots of active mining long after 1855- more professional and less amateur but that's all good, a cool artifact either way.
 

How about some pictures a general overview and then some closeups with macro settings of the insides......
 

KevinInColorado said:
Kuger, you are the expert...but there was lots of active mining long after 1855- more professional and less amateur but that's all good, a cool artifact either way.
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:laughing7: no expert but passionate student of the "Gold Rush",the Gold Rush was from 1848-1855.....of course there was major mining after that but crucibles are not "relics",of the Gold Rush Period.
They are cool relics....relics which as kids used to shoot!!!I know of one spot now under water there were 100's of them!!!Still have a few,and have seen some go for stupid $$$....not Gold Rush though :thumbsup:
 

...also on that note.......my granddad used to get on us about playing with them....he said they had poison on them....what poison,I dunno?I wouldnt be putting heat to em without knowing though....IMHO
 

Lot of old bone cupels would have lead absorbed into them but a true crucible is pretty impermeable and inert I would think.
 

Hello again to all. My apologies for not posting some pics the first time, but...here's a few that will hopefully let you get a better understanding of what I have. I'll be checking on the suggestions about what to do and how it can be done with these things. Hopefully there's some gold in them there crucibles!!!!

Thanks again for the help!!!
Th2
 IMG_0258.JPGIMG_0261.JPGIMG_0262.JPGIMG_0265.JPGIMG_0258.JPG
 

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yep fleabay would be $$$ in the bank! nice find! and i wouldnt say anything about a time period unless i knew when they were made.but i would say theres a possibillity of gold still being in there.
 

How about showing one to an expert at a local museum or university to get a better identification first?
 

Out of 25 crucibles I doubt there would be $2 worth of gold left as residue. :icon_scratch:
 

as said,likely more value to sell them as the historical items they are instead of destroying them for a very minute amount of gold....and risking poisoning yourself..............Gramps knew mining.......
 

TreasureHunter2,
Here's my 2 cents worth;
To me, not that I know squat, those look like older ceramic cupel/crucibles items that were used for assaying not the current type used for crushing with a pestle. As such they could contain various chemical residues used in assay work, those could include arsenic. Heating, ingesting or getting any of the solids, dust from them into ones eye, lungs, etc. could be harmful so treat them with care.

Again, not that I know squat, I would first find out exactly what the ceramic items are called so you have a correct description for them. Sharing one of the pictures you have of them with a museum or current ceramic or mining company should lead you to the details of the proper terminology for them. Also I'd ask the people you contact if they could 'speculate' on what your specific ceramic pieces were used for. (seeing round balls of metal in one of them in your pictures indicates a likely assay or smelting procedure was taking place with these)

I feel that what you have in front of you is an adventure and handled properly it may turn out to be a lucrative one as if indeed these can be dated (maybe some cast markings on their bottoms would help in this) and could be associated with the gold rush or a plausible relationship to the processing of gold in SF in the late late 19th century then there could be some collector value in them?! In Redwood City there used to be a thriving company called "Franks Tannery" just off of what is now Veterans Boulevard. The place was demolished in the early 1970's But just before the demo started and when walking through one of the huge warehouse like units there was a trunk that had been left. It was an old trunk with old stuff in it. In hind sight the entire trunk should have been taken out of there as it was just going to go to the dump but instead only a centennial magazine from 1949 was removed. What is the value of these older items? Who collects them? But collectors are avid at their chosen collectables!

So, have fun, search well and who knows what you will find or be able to do with your trove!..........Good Success...63bkpkr
 

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They are the older type of crucibles used in assaying,and toxic chemicals were used in that practice...they are on Fee-Bay from $25 a piece and I have seen them in shps for that...will they bring that?I cant tell ya
 

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