Written by the Treasureguide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.
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| Old Corroded Silver Ring. |
Here is an old silver ring found not far from a Barber dime at Rio Mar when the dunes there were as eroded as I'd ever seen them.
I don't know what it shows. I have a guess, but I want to hear what you think before saying. Notice the two distinct pointed extensions coming from the top of the circle.
Here is the back. As you can see, an open shank is soldered to the trapezoid shield.
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| Back of Same Ring. |
Let me know what you think is on the face of the ring.
Yesterday I showed this new ring find.
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| Recently Found Ring. |
I've talked a little about acid testing in recent days. It isn't always easy. While some cases are easy, there are times when it isn't so easy. For example, gold plating and gold-filled items can be a little more difficult, as can some karats of gold. Different people have different ways of dealing with some of the more difficult cases.
It isn't all clean and easy, and there is a bit of an art to it as well as the science of it. I just got new acid, and hadn't done much acid testing for a while.
The important thing about testing silver or gold plated items is getting down to the base metal. You have to scratch through the plating. Some people actually file into the item. If you don't get deep enough into the metal, you'll just be testing the plating and get false results.
Different people have different techniques for identifying gold-filled items. Some use 14kt acid and look for different colors in the response.
The big problem with acid testing in general is having to scratch off some of the metal, which you won't want to do to a nice coin or piece of jewelry, but plated items require getting into the base metal for valid results.
A few of the rubbings I did with the ring shown above held up to 10kt acid pretty well. The rubbing did dissolve but very slowly. I started thinking it might be a slightly lower karat then 10 (maybe 9), but when I did heavier rubbings, it did not stand up to the 10kt acid. So it looks to me like it has a wash or plating or something close to 10kt gold.
I also tested it with platinum test acid, and found it wasn't platinum. If it was platinum it would not have stood up to the acid for testing gold, so I would have known from that anyhow.
It is really helpful to have a variety of items for comparison. Not only are the test pens that sometimes come with acid test kits helpful, but it always good to have a wide variety of items that you know well for comparison. If you have some gold filled items, for example, keep them for comparison too. If you are testing an item that responds to the acid just like an item that you know is 1/20 gold filled (5% gold), for example, you know the item being tested is similarly gold filled.
Acid for 10kt gold is common. But what if the item is something like 9kt. Then you have to be able to recognize how it responds to the 10kt test acid. Experience is the best teacher, and having some examples for comparison makes it a lot easier.
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| Source; nhc.noaa.gov |
It looks like hurricane Ida will make landfall around Louisiana Sunday.\
The other two systems look like they will stay out in the Atlantic.
The Treasure Coast surf today is three to five feet. It will be decreasing the next few days.
Happy Hunting.
TreasureGuide@comcast.net