Couple of Questions on these Gold Nuggets

Hi All,

So technically these arent my 'finds' as i bought them from ebay.

Both are Australian gold nuggets, bought from different sellers.

Both feel and look like gold.

The issue i have is that one looks really really orangey yellow gold in colour and has a semi crystalline structure whereas the other is quite frosted looking and not all that shiny.

The difference is more apparent in person (the frosted one doesnt look very shiny at all and the other one looks way more shiny and pure gold like) but please have a look at the pic and tell me what you think?

They are both supposed to be 96 - 98% pure gold Australian nuggets but why do they look so different?

Oh, and also, one nugget is about 5g whereas the other is almost 50g so there is a big size difference too!

Thanks in advance,

James

Gold varies greatly in color and lustre from location to location, even in one location you can get smooth and spikey gold , dull and shiny gold.
The top one more than likely has been soaked in a solution to eat away rock etc.
I believe they are both gold, but the picture makes the bottom one look dodgy to me. Just because theres multi colors of gold.
But they are awesome anyway , that big fella has a nice shape , i bet it feels nice.

If in doubt, first do a deep scratch to check it is not lead, & Brass will be much harder to scratch than gold.
Find someone (or yourself?) that can do a very accurate volumetric test (find the exact volume).
They are very clean nuggets so the volume can be taken as all metal.
Then do a calculation on the SG of gold for the volume, & that should match the weight on scales if it is pure gold.
Gold SG is generally around 19.3

Do a displacement test. Hang it in water while sitting on some accurate scales, divide that weight by the nuggets dry weight.
If its 96% pure it should have an sg around 19

Ded Driver said:

If in doubt, first do a deep scratch to check it is not lead, & Brass will be much harder to scratch than gold.
Find someone (or yourself?) that can do a very accurate volumetric test (find the exact volume).
They are very clean nuggets so the volume can be taken as all metal.
Then do a calculation on the SG of gold for the volume, & that should match the weight on scales if it is pure gold.
Gold SG is generally around 19.3

Click to expand...

Aaagh - no need to scratch! SG alone will absolutely differentiate gold and lead.

Ebay is always a bit of a gamble , Coz there have been some shonky Nuggets being sold .
Remember the Dude that was melting $1 and $2 coins then selling as Natural Australian Nuggets ." the scum bag :fistpump: :fistpump: "
But an SG test will tell the truth :Y:
To me the bottom one looks to have been in a ultra sonic cleaner ( bright an shiny )
The top one looks like maybe had some Ironstone removed with Acid ( the frosted look )

# 1

Hey. if it's not a secret how much did you give per gram?