Off topic, not watch related. What is this?

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binbin
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Off topic, not watch related. What is this?

Post by binbin »

Found this last night. The back of the base looks like it may have broke off something. Broach broken off clasp? Ring top broken off ring?

Very heavy for size. 5.96 grams.

Non magnetic. With a very strong magnet you can feel an eddy current effect when you pass it by the magnet.
(copper, silver and gold would all react like this.)

I figured with the large group of people here, maybe someone has seen something like this.
DSC_2216-smalls.jpg
DSC_2217-smalls.jpg
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TUFF Stough
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Re: Off topic, not watch related. What is this?

Post by TUFF Stough »

it seems to be a button of a heavy coat. any picture of the backside?
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binbin
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Re: Off topic, not watch related. What is this?

Post by binbin »

Backside photo.

DSC_2220-smalls.jpg
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Re: Off topic, not watch related. What is this?

Post by jrlmsla »

Hydrochloric Acid (HCl) also known as muriatic acid for cleaning pools will help you tell if it is copper.
-Put a little bit on a cotton swab.
-Rub the item with the cotton swab. The HCl will clean the metal making it very bright like you would expect polished gold to look. Then leaving it alone for a few minutes will allow the copper to begin to oxidize (rust). When this happens the copper turns green. If no green, no copper.

Don’t breath in a lot of fumes from HCl. The fumes are hydrogen chloride gas which form back into HCl when it comes in contact with water. You have water in your nose, mouth, throat and eyes and the formed acid will burn and irritate in high enough quantities.

Nitric Acid can be used for testing for gold and silver.
make a tiny scratch on the item using a small nail file.
Add a small drop of nitric acid to the scratch. If there is no reaction, then the piece is probably made from real gold. You are most likely dealing with another metal or even a gold-plated item if you see green. Silver mixed in with the gold will leave a milky substance when nitric acid is applied.

If Hydrochloric Acid is a school bully, then Nitric Acid is a pro boxer. It will eat holes in just about anything so be careful


If you don’t want to mess around with acids then you can try to figure it out using a little math.
Measure the density by taking its weight and dividing by its volume. To figure out volume you would need a container that measures water in small increments like a graduated cylinder. You would fill with enough water to cover the item and then take a reading of the amount of water. Then place the item in the water and take another reading. The first number minus the second will be the volume. There are ways to calculate the volume by measuring the item but because it’s kind of uneven it might be hard to get a good result.
Density= mass/volume
So the density of copper is 8.92 grams per cubic cm
Density of gold is 19.3 grams per cubic cm
Silver is 10.49 g per
You can rough guess also. If you melted the item down then how big would the blob of metal be? 1 cubic centimeter? 2? Then plug this number in.

Final option I can think of is to take it to a jewelry store and they have test kits to determine metal content.
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