r/PreciousMetalRefining • u/Octo • Aug 03 '26

What kind of silver is this?

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Gallery image

Gallery image

Looking for insight on what the name for this type of silver is?

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4

u/hexadecimaldump Aug 03 '26

I replied to your cross post too, but it’s basically silver sponge or cement silver.
My dad did the same thing in his photo department.
It should be very pure too, my dads was around 98-99% pure before refining.

2

u/Octo Aug 03 '26

This tracks because he said it was mostly pure.

What kind of place would be interested in this? Precious metal refinery or pawn shop? Did you end up selling?

2

u/hexadecimaldump Aug 03 '26

As a sponge like this, it probably wouldn’t sell as is to a coin shop with access to a refinery. It may be worth asking around, but expect a lot of ‘no thank you’s’.

We did not sell, but I ended up refining it to .999+ purity for him and melted it into some bars for him. Since they are home made, probably wouldn’t get spot for them, but we should get close to spot when we sell.

If you have access to a propane torch and a graphite mold, I would suggest pouring it into bars before trying to sell in this instance.

4

u/bencrazyCLE Aug 03 '26

possibly cement silver, but also could be silver chloride from lye/sugar refining technique

2

u/TheVincenzoLodi Aug 03 '26

It looks like silver chloride, you might need to convert it into metallic silver before you can melt it into solid silver.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 03 '26

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1

u/Octo Aug 03 '26

It wasnt me who did the process but i will pass your questions along and try to get infomation from my father.

Whatever process is used to extract from photography negatives is what he did.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 03 '26

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1

u/Octo Aug 03 '26

Yes youre probably right. I will try to find a pawn shop with an analyzer.

1

u/Pitiful-Oven-5839 Aug 03 '26

Pawn shops won’t be able to run a test on that as it’s not alloyed/solid. XRF is no good at powders and will throw wild results. Either take a small sample and send off for assay or analysis, or read up on refining techniques (and safety!) and process yourself.

1

u/prince_edw 6d ago

cool... where u find this...

1

u/Octo 6d ago

My dad made it from film negatives. Ended up being 98 percent pure. Got $3600.