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.

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Agony and Death on a Gold Rush Steamer: The Disastrous Sinking of the Side-Wheeler Yankee Blade - Grab it through Amazon!

[Crispin]

Okay, story over. Who has an explanation for why I found platinum at a possible shipwreck/possible Indian burial site. When did humans even start working with platinum?

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Upgraded Night Vision Monocular Digital Infrared Monocular Telescope for 100% Darkness with 8X Zoom - Grab it through Amazon!

[ARC]

Conclusion ?

Must be from UFO...

Which stands for "Unidentified Found Object".

:P

 

[Crispin]

I dare somebody to call it a fire nugget. No, I double dog dare somebody to call it a fire nugget. Please, somebody call it a fire nugget...just give me a reason...

 

[ARC]

Fire nugget :P

 

[ARC]

Better yet... piece of flying saucer.

Check for symbols :P

 

[deepsecrets]

Okay, story over. Who has an explanation for why I found platinum at a possible shipwreck/possible Indian burial site. When did humans even start working with platinum?

Platinum is the least reactive metal. It has remarkable resistance to corrosion, even at high temperatures, and is therefore considered a noble metal. Consequently, platinum is often found chemically uncombined as native platinum. Because it occurs naturally in the alluvial sands of various rivers, it was first used by pre-Columbian South American natives to produce artifacts. It was referenced in European writings as early as 16th century, but it was not until Antonio de Ulloa published a report on a new metal of Colombian origin in 1748 that it became investigated by scientists.

 

[ARC]

Did you know that the Spanish threw Platinum BACK when they found it into rivers.

To mature... to grow into gold.

They thought at first was "undone" gold.

 

[DirtStalker]

I dare somebody to call it a fire nugget. No, I double dog dare somebody to call it a fire nugget. Please, somebody call it a fire nugget...just give me a reason...

Ya think its a fire nugget?

 

[releventchair]

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

View attachment 1186192

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

View attachment 1186193

View attachment 1186194

And she will not forget.

 

[BosnMate]

Well, it sorta, kinda, almost resembles a melted Bud, Coor's, Lucky, Reingold, Pepsi, Coke can fire nugget. Looks like you might be onto something. Oh yeah, you are supposed to be
careful when you play with big boys toys. It sort of reminds me of the famous last words of a redneck, "Hey y'all, watch this." OK, it's not funny, hope you heal up soon and find a
bunch more of those nuggets.

 

[huntsman53]

It's a damn good thing it ain't a Chicken Nugget!


Frank

 

[G.I.B.]

I wonder how many people (other than myself) are going to start digging through that old bucket of junk collected at the beach and reevaluate it...

I'm glad I saved most of my stuff. I can picture hundreds of nuggets I've tossed in the past-

Going hunting at the dump. BRB.

 

[Crispin]

I remembered this morning that I had a jar of coins that I assumed were trash pennies I had collected from this site over the last three years. I went through them this morning and found some potential silver candidates. After last night's debacle with the acid I have elected to put them in vinegar and let them soak for a week or so. Will follow up with results. Click on the pics and they will rotate into the right orientation.

 

[G.I.B.]

Thank God you are out of acid... and countertops~

 

[releventchair]

Thank God you are out of acid... and countertops~

Must continue...

 

[fowledup]

"Here, hold my beer while I do this" lol

 

[releventchair]

All in fun Crispin.
I used to transfer hundreds of gallons of acids from different drums to tanks.
Tyvek suit, rubber boots ,rubber gloves, goggles and a face shield and respirator.
Spilled about five gallons once than ate concrete and steel partition wall while I squeegeed frantically. Stuff made my skin itch from the fumes.
Had to pee once and apparently had touched a soiled face shield with a bare hand....
Managed to get a splash now and then under the shield and somehow on an arm now and then.

 

[Crispin]

Okay, so I couldn't let them sit for a week, I have no patience. Here are the hi-res photos.

 

[Crispin]

After running nitric acid tests this is what I ended up with:



Any idea what these could be? I can explain one or two away as dimes but in all that trash clad not one silver quarter. What are the chances of finding this much beat up silver associated with dimes and none from quarters? All brain storming appreciated.

 

[mcl]

I dare somebody to call it a fire nugget. No, I double dog dare somebody to call it a fire nugget. Please, somebody call it a fire nugget...just give me a reason...

Now, believe me, I'm not here to call it a fire nugget. It is certainly possible that you've found platinum. In fact, in rare circumstances platinum nuggets are found in nature -- and either way, humans have been using platinum for long enough that it isn't completely out of the question that you've found some.

BUT..

I'm going to challenge you on this one -- not because I'm saying you're wrong, but because science. I would like you to put that thing on a scale and see how much it weighs. Preferably, we'd check this against its size measurements and see whether your conclusion makes sense.

I encourage this because platinum is a fairly distinct metal and should be easy to recognize due to it properties. The following is a demonstration, not for you necessarily but for anyone who might be interested in what platinum looks like next to some other materials. Click the photos for some decent resolution.

First, here's a look at three rings of quite different designs. On the left is a ring made of stainless steel. The outside has both polished and matte finishes, but the inside is polished steel. Note the brilliant reflectivity of the inside. You can clearly make out the threads of the cloth it's sitting on. In the middle, we have a much more modestly-sized ring made of 95% platinum, 5% ruthenium. Note the rather dull, diffuse sheen of the outside edge. It started out shiny like the inside, but after a couple months of wearing it, it was completely covered in microscopic scratches. Every time I turned a door knob, it got a new gash. This is the nature of platinum -- nice and mushy. The metal becomes displaced rather than flaking off as other materials like gold tend to do when scratched. Note that in the relatively diffuse lighting of this picture, you can clearly see its color relative to the other two rings -- very distinct, cool and grey. Now, finally, the ring on the far right is made of sterling silver. I've polished it up, making it give off blinding levels of specular reflections. If not for the pitting and scratches, you could use it as a mirror. This one is "hefty" by my personal standards. Not something I'd wear. I dug it up.



This next picture lets you see what the wear and tear looks like. Note the sanded-down appearance of the platinum versus the pitted and scarred sterling silver and the relatively impervious stainless steel.



Putting them on a scale gives you an idea of another key characteristic of platinum: its heft. First up, here's the stainless steel ring.



The tiny platinum ring in comparison:



And the big chunky silver, which not surprisingly is the heaviest.



However, given that the silver ring was enormous in comparison, it is quite impressive that the platinum rang in at almost 11 grams.

So, the point of this demonstration? If that chunk of metal you've found really is platinum, then it ought to weigh quite a bit for its size! On with the scale and caliper!