Slow Start To The Year But Things Are Improving

[Compass]

27 minutes ago, Joe Beechnut OBN said:

Good to see the compass pointed in the direction of Gold! Love the chain! Lots of nice treasure ..

Thanks OBN! I had almost forgotten how good it feels to find gold but now that my appetite has been whetted again I can't wait to find more.

[Dances With Doves]

10 hours ago, mh9162013 said:

Great finds!

Is the Tiffany & Co. ring made out of white gold, sterling silver or platinum?

On a possibly related note: what does a platinum ring come up as for most detectors? Same as a silver coin or quarter?

My buddy found a Tiffany ring made out of titanium . 

[Valens Legacy]

Great finds, and glad that you are having a chance to get out and detect.

I just got back home from working in the Gulf for quite some time now and just hope I get a chance to get out there for a couple of days.

Good luck on your next hunt and stay safe.

[mh9162013]

7 hours ago, Compass said:

In the world of metal detectors I believe that gold jewelry are considered "low" conductors relative to the better conductors - silver and copper

That's because it's rarely used in its pure form in jewelry. It's usually alloyed with other metals that drastically reduce its conductivity compared to its pure form. Most gold rings will be 10, 12 (50% gold), 14 or 18k (75% gold). This brings its conductivity down closer to aluminum, although depending on the object's size, it can still ring up as a high conductor.

In contrast, older American coins are often 95% copper or 90% silver. Both metals are very good conductors that close to gold's ability to conduct electricity.

You're right about gold's stability and corosion resistance and how that contributes to its wide use in industrial applications.

[Compass]

8 hours ago, Dances With Doves said:

My buddy found a Tiffany ring made out of titanium . 

Possibly like this one I found last year. It is silver on the inside and titanium on the outside. Not a big fan as the titanium has ugly wear marks!

[Compass]

7 hours ago, Valens Legacy said:

Great finds, and glad that you are having a chance to get out and detect.

I just got back home from working in the Gulf for quite some time now and just hope I get a chance to get out there for a couple of days.

Good luck on your next hunt and stay safe.

Thanks VL and same to you my friend.

[Compass]

2 hours ago, mh9162013 said:

That's because it's rarely used in its pure form in jewelry. It's usually alloyed with other metals that drastically reduce its conductivity compared to its pure form. Most gold rings will be 10, 12 (50% gold), 14 or 18k (75% gold). This brings its conductivity down closer to aluminum, although depending on the object's size, it can still ring up as a high conductor.

In contrast, older American coins are often 95% copper or 90% silver. Both metals are very good conductors that close to gold's ability to conduct electricity.

You're right about gold's stability and corosion resistance and how that contributes to its wide use in industrial applications.

 

[GB_Amateur]

There are two ways of thinking about conductivity -- one is the purely scientific and the other is how objects respond to a metal detector. 

In the first case, the fact that a pure (elemental) metal has a particular conductivity doesn't mean that its alloys will be similar.  In pure elemental form, the best conductivities (at 'normal' temperatures) in order are silver, copper, gold, aluminum.  At water's freezing point temperature those conductivity values (in units of 10^8/ohm-meters) are 3.3, 0.64, 0.49, and 0.40.   Pure platinum is a bit worse than pure iron:  0.10 vs. 0.11 and ranking 22 and 21 among all elements found on/in the earth.  Lead is another well-known metal (not always found alloyed) among detectorists.  Its conductivity in pure form is about half of iron's.

Alloying small to moderate amounts of a secondary element (usually done to make a metal more durable) typically drops the conductivity of the dominant element.

Different shapes, sizes, and amounts (i.e. weights) changes things, and in the case of jewelry, often drastically.

Best is for someone who has found platinum jewelry to indicate where on the typical metal detector conductance scale those show up.  Relying on scientific measurements of pure elements when trying to figure out metal detector response isn't really very helpful in practice.

 

[Dances With Doves]

8 hours ago, Compass said:

Possibly like this one I found last year. It is silver on the inside and titanium on the outside. Not a big fan as the titanium has ugly wear marks!

It had no silver.

[Skate]

On 9/9/2021 at 7:41 PM, Compass said:

Thanks! The Tiffany ring is silver and the 2nd one that I have found of the same design. It was cool because I was pretty sure by the shape it was a Tiffany even in the dark when I found it. I mostly use my pulse detectors at the beach so I don't know what numbers platinum will come up as. Maybe someone here will answer your question - not even sure but guessing platinum is a "low" conductor?

I just found a mens platinum wedding band Friday when looking for a Rolex for a customer. It rang up a solid 13-14 on the 800. It was the first thing other than a bottle cap I have found that hit 14 on the Nox. It was 10.25 grams of platinum.