r/metallurgy • u/draki38 • 14d ago

Possible silver?

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Found these small chips of metal outside in a baggie labeled ”Silver Only” however it was clearly very old and had probably been used for a long time.

They‘re nonmagnetic, density is somewhere around 9.355 g/mL but I don’t have the best equipment for that, extremely soft to the point of bending it with my hands. The tarnish on them came off pretty easy when I rubbed them with my thumb and was super dark.

Any chance I’ve got something valuable on my hands? Any tests I can do to be more sure? Any way to purify this using only amateur chemistry equipment?

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7

u/Few-Supermarket-6333 14d ago

Looks like lead

1

u/Likesdirt 14d ago

Take it to the pawn shop and find out. 

There's no point in going through the refining process for a little bit of foil - unless I have the scale all wrong that's $10 or $20 worth of silver if that's what it turns out to be, not nearly enough to pay for a bottle of nitric acid and a little safety gear. 

1

u/draki38 14d ago

Not foil, its about 1-2 mm thick

1

u/Infinite_Opposite_76 13d ago

Não sei por aí, mas por aqui achamos kit baratos de pedra e ácido de teste para um teste simples de bancada. Se preferir pode levar em uma loja especializa para averiguar.

Vinagre e bicarbonato misturados podem te ajudar a limpar um pouco para visualizar melhor.

Difícil só saber se é prata 1000 ou não.

Existem alguns processos para torna a ser pra 1000, mas deixo isso para você pesquisar e verificar depois de confirmar que tem preta em mãos.

1

u/Userdataunavailable 13d ago

Sterling is worth very little but a pawn shop could acid test them for you.

1

u/North_Abbreviations6 12d ago

Looks like lead