Interesting stone

[revanlive]

Hello !
I was gold prospecting in ireland. And in the pan, at the very end with the gold I found this strange little stone. As you can see on the picture it’s very small held by the tweezers, 5-10mm of diameter.
What is strange is that it feels very light, almost organic like a piece of bark, but it was behaving like heavies in the pan. I tried to pan my concentrate twice and it was always amongst the last thing in the pan, so the heavy stuff.
The pattern is very strange too.
It almost looks like it’s covered of gold.
To me it’s an alien composite 😂
If anybody could point me in the right direction to identify it it would be great !
Cheers !!
Front :


Back :

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Upgraded Night Vision Monocular Digital Infrared Monocular Telescope for 100% Darkness with 8X Zoom - Grab it through Amazon!

[HuntinDog]

It could be gold covered in mercury or a piece of oxidized lead

 

[revanlive]

Oh it could be, the area was mined quite heavily during the 1800's and also still exploited by private prospectors in the 1900's.
Isn't mercury bright silver usually ?
I'll try to research if mercury was used at the time. The pattern is very surprising these kinds of triangles.
thanks for these ideas !

 

[HuntinDog]

Mercury usually turns black or dark gray over time.
Lead turns white or a light gray.

 

[HuntinDog]

It also looks like it might have been pewter that may have been plated.
Old pewter had lead in it.

 

[revanlive]

thanks for the tips. Who would you ask for an identification ? A geologist or more towards a jeweler/metal expert ?

 

[A2coins]

Really cool piece

 

[Rookster]

That is intharesting. Nice find.

 

[HuntinDog]

A jeweler that deals in raw gold jewelry would be my first stop.