Ornate decorative emblem ... ??? (gold, brass, other ... ) {New images}

[jmwilson]

(Updated with smaller images, which should fit on just about any display.)


Hello all...

This is my first decent find... on my first day with my metal detector...


After a few hours of finding old nails from an 1840s era squatter's cabin, we decide to work where an old road bed crossed a creek. The piece was a little over 12" under the bank of the creek. The first 3-4" of digging was through very large and dense roots. After that it was sand, rocks, and mud.

The piece came out of the sand and mud looking exactly as the pictures show - a brilliant shiny gold color. (I have not polished it or done anything to it.) My first impression was brass, but then I remembered that any brass left outdoors has a green color (due to the high copper content). So, I am left thinking this might actually be gold. The piece is fairly thin in places and it seems that the design was either stamped or hand engraved.

The first picture includes a penny (new and clean) and a dime for size and color reference. The other pictures just show the piece alone - both front and back.



First, I would like to know if anyone has any ideas what this piece is ... and what the design means?

Second, I would like to know if this is gold?
(I do plan to have it tested, but experienced opinions are welcomed.)


The piece was found in North Carolina.


thanks,
john

 

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[randazzo1]

Wow- It really looks like gold - and 18K plus gold at that. Funny how a picture can fool you. I hope if I saw it in person and held it in myhand I wouldn't think it was gold. Nice find regardless - very nice for a first day out.

 

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[lazooro]

oh c'mon!!! like no body knows how gold looks!!
forget gold it is a brass thing...nothing natural on this earth can do something to real gold!
that is why gold is so special.

 

[SkyPirate]

looks like GOLD!

 

[JW]

oh c'mon!!! like no body knows how gold looks!!
forget gold it is a brass thing...nothing natural on this earth can do something to real gold!
that is why gold is so special.

Gold will collect tarnish if it is in direct contact with rusting iron. I have found a gold sided pocket knife that was tarnished by the rusting chassis of the knife. A certain individual found over a dozen gold coins in a rusted container and the rust was stuck to the coin and tarnished the gold. I have discussed this very thing with him before regarding the identification of the rusty gold knife I found....

http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,145244.0.html






Test it, photos should not be used to determine the object's material. Even more so when gold does things people don't expect....




It looks very much like a drawer pull guard as someone suggested a bunch of posts ago... But it also looks like it could be something other than brass...

 

[CRUSADER]

oh c'mon!!! like no body knows how gold looks!!
forget gold it is a brass thing...nothing natural on this earth can do something to real gold!
that is why gold is so special.

Gold will collect tarnish if it is in direct contact with rusting iron. I have found a gold sided pocket knife that was tarnished by the rusting chassis of the knife. A certain individual found over a dozen gold coins in a rusted container and the rust was stuck to the coin and tarnished the gold. I have discussed this very thing with him before regarding the identification of the rusty gold knife I found....

http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,145244.0.html






Test it, photos should not be used to determine the object's material. Even more so when gold does things people don't expect....

It looks very much like a drawer pull guard as someone suggested a bunch of posts ago... But it also looks like it could be something other than brass...

I guess you didn't read it all. He did test it & its not Gold, if you think its something other than Brass what do you suggest it is?

Several people on here determine the metal by good pictures all the time.

 

[Silver Searcher]

How can anyone determine a type of metal from a picture...that's Cr@p

Good find, sorry it's not Gold

SS

 

[JW]

oh c'mon!!! like no body knows how gold looks!!
forget gold it is a brass thing...nothing natural on this earth can do something to real gold!
that is why gold is so special.

Gold will collect tarnish if it is in direct contact with rusting iron. I have found a gold sided pocket knife that was tarnished by the rusting chassis of the knife. A certain individual found over a dozen gold coins in a rusted container and the rust was stuck to the coin and tarnished the gold. I have discussed this very thing with him before regarding the identification of the rusty gold knife I found....

http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,145244.0.html






Test it, photos should not be used to determine the object's material. Even more so when gold does things people don't expect....

It looks very much like a drawer pull guard as someone suggested a bunch of posts ago... But it also looks like it could be something other than brass...

I guess you didn't read it all. He did test it & its not Gold, if you think its something other than Brass what do you suggest it is?

Several people on here determine the metal by good pictures all the time.

I thought I read it all, guess I missed the one sentence, but i'm not the only one so perhaps it wasn't very clear...


Funny, the poster above me determined that gold would never do what it did in the link I posted... So when I posted my knife it was claimed as NOT gold by any means because of the attached rust... Looks like that guy was TOTALLY wrong from looking at the photos...

In certain cases, sure pictures will work just fine, but in many other cases they don't work at all. I've witnessed it first hand.

I said it could be something other than brass because I didn't want to say exactly what it was when I really didn't know for sure (or want to pee in his cereal). But the first sentence was it looks like a drawer pull (which would be a correct identification regardless of the material) and since I have never heard of a gold drawer pull and the chance of a gold drawer pull in a squatters camp... You appear to be smart, you figure it out...

 

[CRUSADER]

How can anyone determine a type of metal from a picture...that's Cr@p

Good find, sorry it's not Gold

SS

Must be my magical powers again

 

[CRUSADER]

oh c'mon!!! like no body knows how gold looks!!
forget gold it is a brass thing...nothing natural on this earth can do something to real gold!
that is why gold is so special.

Gold will collect tarnish if it is in direct contact with rusting iron. I have found a gold sided pocket knife that was tarnished by the rusting chassis of the knife. A certain individual found over a dozen gold coins in a rusted container and the rust was stuck to the coin and tarnished the gold. I have discussed this very thing with him before regarding the identification of the rusty gold knife I found....

http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,145244.0.html






Test it, photos should not be used to determine the object's material. Even more so when gold does things people don't expect....

It looks very much like a drawer pull guard as someone suggested a bunch of posts ago... But it also looks like it could be something other than brass...

I guess you didn't read it all. He did test it & its not Gold, if you think its something other than Brass what do you suggest it is?

Several people on here determine the metal by good pictures all the time.

I thought I read it all, guess I missed the one sentence, but i'm not the only one so perhaps it wasn't very clear...


Funny, the poster above me determined that gold would never do what it did in the link I posted... So when I posted my knife it was claimed as NOT gold by any means because of the attached rust... Looks like that guy was TOTALLY wrong from looking at the photos...

In certain cases, sure pictures will work just fine, but in many other cases they don't work at all. I've witnessed it first hand.

I said it could be something other than brass because I didn't want to say exactly what it was when I really didn't know for sure (or want to pee in his cereal). But the first sentence was it looks like a drawer pull (which would be a correct identification regardless of the material) and since I have never heard of a gold drawer pull and the chance of a gold drawer pull in a squatters camp... You appear to be smart, you figure it out...

You made a very good point about Gold & I totally agree, you also demonstrated that you had experience, which is all I was doing When you see all these types of situations, you can tell a lot from a photo. I'm not very smart, just keen on detecting.

 

[Silver Searcher]

oh c'mon!!! like no body knows how gold looks!!
forget gold it is a brass thing...nothing natural on this earth can do something to real gold!
that is why gold is so special.

That's Cr@p to here you go one stained Gold coin, it came out purple in colour proberbly ground conditions, which were this come from is heavy in Iron deposits.

SS

 

[AU Seeker]

I'm a gold prospector/miner and I can tell you that gold will not tarnish nor stain, it can however have minerals deposits adhered to its surface, a lot of raw gold that is found in nature will have some mineral deposits adhered to the surface, the same as in the "tarnished gold item" photo in this thread and in the linked "coins" thread, a soaking in a weak acid such as vinegar will remove most mineral deposits, depending on the mineral.

As it has been determined the item in this thread is not gold, if is was it would have been only gold plated, the telltale sign of this is that any relatively pure gold is very malleable and will not crack as the item pictured in this thread is.


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