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So What is This Stuff?


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Some years back, a friend brought me some mineral he wanted me to identify. It had a pearlescent luster but I couldn't recognize it. I finally figured it out when I realized that it wasn't actually a mineral but a man made item. It was a piece of assay slag glass which had spent a century in the weather. Rain had partly dissolved the glass giving it that pearly look. Not every thing that gets picked up is actually a mineral.
A reader who is a member of another forum pm'ed me there and actually gave the correct answer in spite of the fact that this is a very difficult ID. And yes I am the mean teacher and I do cheat.

I will say what it is tomorrow (Sunday).

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I got distracted and forgot.

The stuff looks like gold. On the other hand, I have seen lots of stuff that at least sort of looks like gold. Pyrite, chalcopyrite, certain forms of mica, Limonite with a metallic luster, and other minerals can be mistaken for gold sometimes. Man made alloys like brass or even gold plated items can be seen in the wild and mistaken for gold. When you look at these things in person, you normally can see immediately that they are not gold, but in a photo it's much harder to tell.

These little bits that look like gold are actually coated chocolate candy. Think like M&Ms but random shapes and colored not with bright primary colors but metallic gold color. There were silver ones in the package too. I got them at a mining convention.

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