Dringle1122

On 1/8/2023 at 9:46 AM, jasong said:

I would say not platinum - based on what appears to be a whitish oxidation occuring. I don't think platinum oxidizes white, think it's more brown to black. Lead will oxidize white though (think of the coating on an old dug up bullet), as will a number of other more common metals that are harder than lead. 

The good old density trick described above will tell the difference between lead and platinum. The key is doing it accurately though, as a lot of people who try are not very careful and it only takes a little inaccuracy to skew the result.

Also forgot to mention after I nailed it with the propane, I noticed a couple areas with some marroon that may or may not have been there before. Not a lot, just a couple areas. I don't even know if oxidizing occurs from heat in this case but yea

Also, love the "drive by" posting comment. I am more of a round trip/drive thru Rockhound and numismatic for the most part. If it's slag, it's slag. I am here for the journey, the learning, and the community 😌 

I'm a drive thru mycologist tho, not gonna lie. Once I find out my LBMs that I misidentified give me bad BMs I take the mycologist hat off for my own health

Hey all, OP here. 😀 appreciate all the responses. I'm gonna have to look into that density deduction method more when I can get a good scale to work with. I know it wasn't the safest move for preservation but I dunked the nugget in meuratic acid to deduce aluminum/alum containing amalgamations and there was no reaction. I also hit it with a large propane torch for like 3 minutes and it held up it's shape.

Also, to be more specific. I live on San Juan Island in the far northwest corner of Washington. After a couple Google searches I found that 8 mines in the state potentially produce platinum. Sooo, I think unless I can get a good scale, my best bet would be to find a jeweler. Trouble is, I'm on a small island so hopefully I'll be going mainland sometime soon. Will keep y'all updated and thanks again for the tips. 

From what I can tell, relative density, mohs tests and visual similarities from other samples across the internet all point to a platinum nugget. Found it beachcombing along the PNW.