Numil
Elite Member
I've found my fair share of rings over the years including gold ones! Never did I suspect that I would find a high karat item. Before I get ahead of myself I'll segway back to where it all started, the beach.
I was in knee deep water after some big surf had tossed a lot of sand around. Most beaches were cut pretty deep of just missing a couple feet of sand from the entire beach. Then my Nox 800 sounds off with a very high pitch tone and I immediately think "silver". I look at the readout and I get an unwavering 30. Not 29, not 31... a solid 30. Took a couple of scoops with my stealth i720 but finally got the target out from about 8 inches of the sand. The ring is gold and a brilliant buttery gold so I'm thinking "gotta be gold plated silver".
Back at the truck I get out the loop I keep with me and look for any identifying marks. Only thing I see inside is PNG (the manufacturer) and 958 stamped both large and small inside the ring. A search online doesn't bring up much about 958 stamps so I let the acid testing help me out. Scratching the ring on the ceramic slate is easy, too easy as I can tell its really soft. Now comes the acid test and I'll me damned. I've never uncorked the 22K acid for testing before but today was a day of firsts. It held, I mean it actually held the 22K acid test with easy!
I still have doubts so I try dividing 23K by 24 K so see what the decible answer it. Sure enough 23K equates to 958. But still there's a lingering doubt so i take the ring to the lab at school and do a specific gravity test. The scale reads in 100th's of a gram and the ring weights 7.03g and I come up with a 18.4 as a final number. Pure gold is 19.3 so I'm def in the ball park. Its gold! I got a theory as to where it came from and why such high purity but that's for a later story.
The other pic is what I pulled out of the sand in January, 2 small plat rings and some silver. But I found gold and I'm on the board for the year.
Happy Hunting and Good Luck out there.
I was in knee deep water after some big surf had tossed a lot of sand around. Most beaches were cut pretty deep of just missing a couple feet of sand from the entire beach. Then my Nox 800 sounds off with a very high pitch tone and I immediately think "silver". I look at the readout and I get an unwavering 30. Not 29, not 31... a solid 30. Took a couple of scoops with my stealth i720 but finally got the target out from about 8 inches of the sand. The ring is gold and a brilliant buttery gold so I'm thinking "gotta be gold plated silver".
Back at the truck I get out the loop I keep with me and look for any identifying marks. Only thing I see inside is PNG (the manufacturer) and 958 stamped both large and small inside the ring. A search online doesn't bring up much about 958 stamps so I let the acid testing help me out. Scratching the ring on the ceramic slate is easy, too easy as I can tell its really soft. Now comes the acid test and I'll me damned. I've never uncorked the 22K acid for testing before but today was a day of firsts. It held, I mean it actually held the 22K acid test with easy!
I still have doubts so I try dividing 23K by 24 K so see what the decible answer it. Sure enough 23K equates to 958. But still there's a lingering doubt so i take the ring to the lab at school and do a specific gravity test. The scale reads in 100th's of a gram and the ring weights 7.03g and I come up with a 18.4 as a final number. Pure gold is 19.3 so I'm def in the ball park. Its gold! I got a theory as to where it came from and why such high purity but that's for a later story.
The other pic is what I pulled out of the sand in January, 2 small plat rings and some silver. But I found gold and I'm on the board for the year.
Happy Hunting and Good Luck out there.