Platinum pulled from Gulf (you guys will not believe this!)

[Crispin]

Howdy folks,
If you have not been following any of my threads recently (I can't blame you) then I am excavating a very old site in the Gulf of Mexico. I would like for some of these threads to be merged if possible my the mods because I think some great knowledge has been shared here. Anyway, lets start the roller coaster.

I went out to my site this Friday and hunted all the signals I never hunt, trying to get a better sample. I found three pieces of metal that passed the muriatic acid test. One was obvious silver and reduced well in the pan. You can see the other that in Crispin vs. Fire Nugget. The other two samples were bubbling up (reducing) but very slowly. I could tell they had been there for quite a while. I had them in the pan for two hours and made no progress in cleaning them up. Frustrated...I quit for the night and threw them in vinegar. This is what I found 24 hours later: Please click on the pictures and blow them up to get a better look. These all are in hi-res.

 

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[Crispin]

So I decide to put a few drops of silver solution on them and BAM!

 

[Crispin]

The bottle blew up in my face. I was wearing my protective eye ware and dove under the sink. Flushed my face for ten seconds and started to feel the acid burning away on my arms and chest. Stripped off my clothes, grabbed Eva puppy before she could investigate, threw her in the closet, and sprinted to the shower. Don't worry everybody, Eva is fine. I escaped with minor burns. When I toweled off I threw Sodium Bicarbonate over everything (baking soda) to neutralize the acid.

 

[Crispin]

Coin looked like this:



Odd, I thought it was a penny and would have totally dissolved, but what was even odder is the other piece of metal had not changed at all! So I'm pretty upset and throwing caution to the wind. I poor nitric acid on to it and this is what it does....nothing...

 

[david680]

I remember a thread not too long ago where a member got instructions to stop throwing acid on everything. Who was that?

 

[Crispin]

So, I am thinking I got some busted nitric acid, something is wrong here. So I pour it on the now presumed to be somewhat silver coin...this is what it does:





No room for discussion there. That is an obvious milky blue reaction....925 silver and above.

So I pour more solution on the other piece, still no reaction! Crazy bizarre.

 

[ARC]

Errrr crispen...
You are lucky that did not hit your eyes or mouth.

Sheesh man.
So... what does that counter look like ?
Is that why you put the "white paper" there ?

 

[Crispin]

Lets try 10k...nothing:





Lets try 14K...nothing:





Lets try 18k...nothing:

 

[ARC]

Try 22 :P

 

[G.I.B.]

Whew- I'm exhausted....

I bet you are going to have to buy a new counter top.

 

[Crispin]

Lets try 22K:...something, but not much... very odd...

 

[Crispin]

Errrr crispen...
You are lucky that did not hit your eyes or mouth.

Sheesh man.
So... what does that counter look like ?
Is that why you put the "white paper" there ?

Don't ruin the ending! It did get my mouth. I have a 1st degree burn.

 

[Crispin]

Okay then...lets try the Platinum:



Something...but again...not much:

 

[Crispin]

So I throw it in the oxidation-reduction pan for 45minutes....it is painstakingly slow:





Okay...I'm done with the redox pain: I take in outside and place it in muriatic acid for one minutes. It does nothing!!!

I'm burned, my patience is thin, and I think I am losing my sanity. The heck with it. I take a file to it and get rid of the oxidation the old fashioned way:

 

[Crispin]

Opps, this is 18k...nothing..





14K...nothing:

 

[deepsecrets]

Don't ruin the ending! It did get my mouth. I have a 1st degree burn.

Man - sorry to hear that - good thing you were wearing some protective gear and were able to get that off you before too much damage (or your face would be looking like my butt ) Congrats on the find and speedy recovery!

 

[Crispin]

22K...very little:






Platinum:....not much but something, which is to be expected.

 

[Crispin]

I put the platinum solution on the silver as a control and watch as it destroys it rapidly:

 

[Crispin]

So this is what we end up with...silver and platinum:

 

[Crispin]

I took the file back to the platinum to make it shiny again: I left the other piece untouched...



Collateral damage to the counter and my fingers. Wife saw the counter and has demanded I buy her two ones! Smack forehead.