Silver Nuggets?

NickelPlate · May 24, 2020

Hi All,

My wife and I have found several of these in our yard. They ring well into the 90s VDI on our detectors. They sure look like silver nuggets to us. Any thoughts?

Thanks,

NP

JimR_TN · May 24, 2020

Melted aluminum, from cans thrown into fires. They sound so good too.

NickelPlate · May 24, 2020

Ha! Sure looks like that too. Oh well you’re probably right. It was fun to think silver while it lasted.

matmit · May 24, 2020

I find a lot of those aluminum blobs at a beach nearby

waltr · May 25, 2020

A density test will separate silver from aluminum easily.

Lookup (google search) :
https://www.goldpay.us/specific-gravity-gold/

Method shown for gold but works on any metal. Once you get the calculated density or 'specific gravity', compare the value to metals on a chart.

NickelPlate · May 25, 2020

Thanks for the link Walter.

Tom_in_CA · May 25, 2020

matmit said:
I find a lot of those aluminum blobs at a beach nearby

JimR_TN said:
Melted aluminum, from cans thrown into fires. They sound so good too.

^ ^ this ^ ^

Aluminum nuggets from bonfires or past trash-burn pits.

The reason why they might not *seem* to be aluminum at first, is that when they are molten down into the nuggets, they are so unfamiliar to our normal feel of aluminum. Which is always lightweight things like the thin cans, thin tabs, foil, etc.... We're not used to holding aluminum in "nugget" form, so we don't expect them to be heavier than the usual aluminum we're accustomed to handling.

NickelPlate · May 26, 2020

Tom_in_CA said:
^ ^ this ^ ^

Aluminum nuggets from bonfires or past trash-burn pits.

The reason why they might not *seem* to be aluminum at first, is that when they are molten down into the nuggets, they are so unfamiliar to our normal feel of aluminum. Which is always lightweight things like the thin cans, thin tabs, foil, etc.... We're not used to holding aluminum in "nugget" form, so we don't expect them to be heavier than the usual aluminum we're accustomed to handling.

That’s a good point. Thanks for the reply.

TCosbyJr · May 28, 2020

Well that confirms the mystery, glad you asked. I find them occasionally in yards, and just thought it was old solder blobs from a sloppy plumber working copper pipe with a blowtorch.

Silver Nuggets?

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