More of a "whats it worth" Auction find

[NHBandit]

More of a "what's it worth" Auction find

Bought a box lot of stuff at a local auction recently and in the mix is a bottle in a small box that says Minimax White Gold & Platinum alloy, 1 oz. Also says it contains gold, platinum & silver & meets US federal & American Dental Association specification #1 for dental amalgum alloys. Also says "for fillings only". Bottle is about half full of a silver colored powder. Doing a quick Google search I come up with some info that "amalgum" means it contains Mercury but that is not one of the ingredients listed anywhere on the bottle or the box. Does this stuff have any value and to who ? It looks to be a fairly old box. Written in ink on the bottle is 5/12/49. Made in 1949 maybe ?

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

How to Research for Treasure Hunting and Metal Detecting From Lead Generation to Vetting - Grab it through Amazon!

[chipveres]

Re: More of a "what's it worth" Auction find

According to www.syrianclinic.com, this is the minimum legal composition of your powder:


(4) Composition of the alloy. The ADA specification states that the composition of the alloy must include a minimum of 65 percent silver, a maximum of 29 percent tin, a maximum of 6 to 13 percent copper, and a maximum of two percent zinc by weight.

However, from the label it seems yours considerably exceeds the minimum standard. The only way I know to find out its true worth is to have it assayed. Perhaps www.kitco.com ?

Chip V.

 

[Tuberale]

Re: More of a "what's it worth" Auction find

Amalgam is what the powder becomes after being mixed with mercury. Mercury would never be stored in an open container, unless you want brain damage or mercury poisoning. The term "mad as a hatter" from Lewis Caroll's "Alice through The Looking Glass" is a direct reference to the use of mercury in the felt industry to create hats: and the physical repurcussions thereof.

The mercury for a filling would have been put in a hand, and the powdered metal added, creating a semi-solid metalic button, which could be inserted in a cavity and trimmed. As the mercury evaporated (yep, guess where?) the amalgam would become solid. I've never heard of platinum being used, but in the 1920's, platinum was MUCH cheaper than gold, and MUCH harder and MUCH less likely to be affected by heat. Mercury has been used to capture platinum during the mining process, but has been discontinued for many years due to the dangers associated with mercury.

 

[AU Seeker]

Re: More of a "what's it worth" Auction find

This is what I found doing a search, It contains 2.5% of gold and platinum, 66.9% silver(from chart in the link)....so you mostly likely have about $15 to $16 worth of precious metals in what is left in the bottle of the mixture, but it would cost you about half that much in chemicals to extract the gold and platinum from the other ingredients if you knew how to do it, it would cost you more to have someone else do it.

"Minimax White Gold and Platinum alloy, which contained
2.5% gold and platinum, was discontinued several
years ago."

http://jdr.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/61/12/1427.pdf


Skip