What is it?

[Maltisau]

So I found these black pickers.

They had a bit of silver colour to them so I put them in a foil-lined ceramic dish with baking soda, salt and boiling water. They fizzled for a while and the black dissolved revealing these silver nuggetty things.

One of the pieces is a gold colour but slightly different to my other pickers from the same area.

Any ideas as to what they may be? They were found East of Castlemaine if that helps.

 

[AtomRat]

Very odd looking things there mate 8) Have you tested if its magnetic

 

[Peko]

I have something very similar that I crushed out of a piece of ironstone, don't know what it is though.

 

[Creekbed]

Not a couple of bits of amalgam is it?

 

[Ryan1981]

No idea mate, but looks very interesting

 

[Maltisau]

Thanks for your input guys.

AtomRat, it is not magnetic, well not with a horseshoe magnet. I don't have a rare earth magnet yet.

Creekbed, it may be amalgam. That's my best guess at the moment. I hope it is. They are my best sized pieces yet.

 

[Tathradj]

Could be native Silver.

 

[Guest]

Could be native Silver.

Yep i was thinking the same. to find out if it is amalgam you only have to heat it up that will tell you. but i would do a bit of research on that first.

 

[Tathradj]

Get a Spud, Cut it in half and leave a small hollow.
Stick a piece of what you have in it, peg the top shut with tooth picks
and then cook it wrapped in foil.
Do this out side and don't open it until it has cooled right down.
Open the spud up and retrieve your specimen.
Bury the remains as deep as you can.
It is preferable to bury the spud combo about 6 inch's deep then light a small fire on top of it all.
One that will last at least 2 hours.

 

[LD.]

Get a Spud, Cut it in half and leave a small hollow.
Stick a piece of what you have in it, peg the top shut with tooth picks
and then cook it wrapped in foil.
Do this out side and don't open it until it has cooled right down.
Open the spud up and retrieve your specimen.
Bury the remains as deep as you can.
It is preferable to bury the spud combo about 6 inch's deep then light a small fire on top of it all.
One that will last at least 2 hours.

I am totally intrigued, what am I missing :8

 

[Wally69]

It is a safe way to get the Mercury off the gold.

The unsafe way is to fire it up into the atmosphere where you can potentially breath in the vapours and risk becoming as mad as a hatter.