My first "what is it post"

[Diggernaut]

OK, I was on a buddy's property tonight and got the metal detector out to show him what this detecting stuff is like. He took me into the back of his property where an old house once stood. The house seems to have be from around the turn of the century but we are really not sure as we have found nothing with a date on it yet. Just mainly stone and early type concrete foundation. We found a thin copper square that was folded over and when flattened back out it was about 4 inches square and looked like an early type backsplash or ceiling tile, although I really have no idea. Anyway back to the "what is it" question. We left the old house and walked about 30-50 yards from the front of the old foundation and I got a really strong hit with my v3i. It was hitting +86, three green, straight bars in alignment. Great quarter hit, I thought. We dug down the 3-4 inches the v3i said it was and out popped something very unusual. After cleaning it off my buddy took a butter knife to give it a little scrape, as we thought it might just be a lump of lead. Not lead, way too hard. It does have a bright silver color underneath the weathered outer skin. It is heavy for it's size and I just can't figure out what it is. I would like to believe that it is a silver nugget but just wishful thinking, I'm sure. I compared it to some .999 silver bars of mine and seems to be close in physical amount and weight for a not completely pure metal. Again, I really don't know. I used some Tarn-X on it and it did nothing. I do know that it can't be steel or iron or it would be a ball of rust. I also know it's not a gold nugget. Other than that, I need your guys' help. Thanks!

 

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[mick56]

Most likely a melted blob of aluminum.

 

[Diggernaut]

That would make sense but it seems way too heavy. Any way to test it to find out?

 

[seaweed]

Maybe find someone with one of these Handheld XRF Analyzers - NitonX-Ray Fluorescence

 

[BosnMate]

Did the original house burn? Your find looks like the melted aluminum drink cans that I have found in the past, but there is
the possibility that sterling silverware was melted in a fire if the house burned, and I would look into that. My great great
grandparents house burned in the late 1800's, and my grandmother and later my mother, repeating family tradition, both
talked about the melted silver in the ashes of the house.

 

[cudamark]

You can get an acid test kit that will test silver pretty reasonable on E-bay.

 

[Diggernaut]

We don't know anything about the house, the age, whether it burned or not, etc. That is a good possibility, though BosnMate. cudamark, thanks. I'm gonna have to get one of those test kits. I put it in some acid that I had for cleaning aluminum and let it sit in that overnight. all it did was bubble over into the stainless steel sink and make a black stain on the sink bottom (which the sife is gonna kill me over cause I can't get it off), and it lightened it up a smidge but the blob still looks grey/black.