Different Finds....Slag Pours?

[bado1]

Detected an old ranch that was built in 1926 with my X-Terra 70. I chose the 6"-3kHz coil as it was VERY trashy. My first good signal was a very strong high tone in all directions with the VID #s up in the silver dollar range in the front yard. A large chunk of heavy metal comes out of the hole. I thought it was a chunk of lead, although it was oddly colored for lead, and it rang up higher than lead on the X-Terra. In the pouch it went. My next good target was a 1943-s "War Nickel", then another chunk of heavy metal. Didn't hunt long but I have permission to go back. After I got home I gave the heavy metal chunks a little cleaning and realized that they weren't lead after all.

 

The two chunks after a rinse off.

 

The larger one just didn't look like old lead and is a dark grey-blue color and is not soft like lead. I dipped it in a liquid metal cleaner and, wow! It came out a nice bright silver color! It turned back to it's original color as it air dried (should have rinsed it off). I took it to the garage to the buffing wheel and briefly hit the edge of it...

 

Buffed up nicely. Weighs 2.70 ounces. Appears to be a silver pour.

 

The second chunk looks more like a slag/first pour than the first one and is mostly copper mixed with what appears to be silver and possibly some gold...

Weighs .50 ounce.

 

This ranch is just down the road from what was once a bustling copper mining town and is now a ghost town. The mine has recently been re-claimed and the town/mine area is now closed to the public. I'm guessing that the people who lived at the ranch may have worked at the mine and brought these pours  home?  

 

 

Dean

[gambler]

cool stuff. especially the second one.

[Tortuga]

The first one looks more natural to me. Silver nugget someone dropped maybe? A simple acid test should tell you if it's silver or not. You can get the test kits for about $12 on Amazon.
The second one does look like slag.