Iron Gold Mold?

[OldSowBreath]

I was rooting around the garage at an estate sale, and came across several boxes of rocks. I picked up a couple of nice pieces of quartz, some fool's gold and a beautiful chunk of specimen gold (that got the old heart beating). Also, from the box, this primitive iron thing. It is about 1 and 1/4th inches wide at the open top, and about an inch tall. It appears round on the outside. Its very heavy, appears to be iron and very old. It almost looks about the size and shape of those rubber ends to a walking cane. There are traces of gold all over it and on the inside also in a lot of the cracks and crevices. The exterior gold looks like it had been accidentally splashed on, as if someone was pouring gold into a mold and on more than one occasion. Some of the gold on the outside is regular gold colored, and some of it is red gold colored. Its not rust. The gold specimen piece also has some of this red or rose gold in it. Now, normally I would think this is some form of a gold mold, but it is eight-sided, or octagonal on the interior. So if gold was poured in, once it hardens, its going to have an octagonal shape. Any ideas on the purpose of this, or its age?





Here, the nice specimen gold.


This is the first time I've posted photos on the forum, so if they are incorrectly sized, I'd appreciate any help. Thanks in advance your input!

 

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[kuger]

wow,been around gold and gold devisces my entire life and am a 7 th generation miner......have seen smelting pots but never one like yours or a octagon mold(I looked real quick through several books in my library as well and cant find any)reddish tint in gold is from Copper...as you may know until refined/smelted no gold is pure.

your specimen is a dandy!!!That appears to be plumb shot full o Yeller!!

 

[OldSowBreath]

Thanks, kuger, good to hear from you. I bought some dirt from you a while back, and was very pleased.

I think I may pour some wax into this and see if the bottom has any kind of semblance to it, like an assayer's mark. I see what appears to be pitting, but it could be some type of figure. There's definitely gold in the crevices.

 

[kuger]

same to you my friend!I have looked further in some 19th Century mauals I have on smelting and see none that match.Regardless if it was meant for that,its obvios thats what it was used for!I love that specie!!!

 

[kuger]

oh.....please be careful with heat on that........they used some very caustic and toxic stuff.....like Mercury and even a small amount in vapor form is not good

 

[AU Seeker]

I never seen a mold like that either.

Very nice specimen, I would do a specific gravity test to see how much gold it has in it!!

I hope you got a great deal on these, did the people running the estate sale know what these items were?

 

[cw0909]

not saying it/was used for ect., 1st thing i thought of was,1852 California Gold Half Dollar Token Octagon Shape
MEB : 1852 California Gold Half Dollar Token Octagon Shape

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[kuger]

not saying it/was used for ect., 1st thing i thought of was,1852 California Gold Half Dollar Token Octagon Shape
MEB : 1852 California Gold Half Dollar Token Octagon Shape

Gold Rush: Vintage Gold "Tokens" from California and Other Gold Mining Areas - Custom Set

yea,its unfortunatly not the mold for what I consider the EPIC find...the top of my to dig list.I have never even seen a gold ingot octagon.For some fantastic images of what molded gold bars would look like ...look into the excavation of the SS Central America

 

[BosnMate]

Just from personal experience. Don't melt gold in a rusty iron ladle, I decided to make a nugget from my dust, and the rust turned the gold pink. Found out why they use those ceramic crucibles.