Junk Earrings Or Are They?

[cuniagau]

Went to one of my beaches this morning and found a pair of junk earrings an hour and 20 feet apart.   The first one I found on my way to the wet sand.  An hour later I came back to hunt a different area of the beach and found the other one.  They were obviously junk with gold plated wire and beads twisted on them that had seen better times.  When I got home I rinsed the salt and sand off of my finds and staged them for a picture.  The earrings were just not right.  I calibrated my gold/platinum tester and of course the wire tested negative but the hoops  and one of the hooks tested 14k.  I got out my dikes and needle nose pliers and cut off all the crap that had been twisted onto them and cleaned them up a bit more and retested.  Sure enough, they are 14K. They weigh 1.6 grams, which gives them a spot gold value of over $50.  So today's life lesson is do not ASSUME that everything is junk until you test it. LOL

I also found a .925 Tiffany & Co ring, copper cents and nickels, so I once again lived up to my CUNIAGAU handle. 🙂

[Joe Beechnut OBN]

That's a Good day out with a nice surprise! Me being a rookie at fresh drops I would have put those in the junk pile for sure.. Nice catch! And man I love that tester!

[cuniagau]

7 minutes ago, Joe Beechnut OBN said:

That's a Good day out with a nice surprise! Me being a rookie at fresh drops I would have put those in the junk pile for sure.. Nice catch! And man I love that tester!

Joe,

I don't have any old swimming spots or bays to hunt.  I have to rely on fresh drops. LOL  The tester was a present to myself after an epic 7 gold day that I had in July.  It is pretty awesome I might add.

Joe

PS  And I am always down for surprises!

[Ridge Runner]

Amazon has the same gold detector for 299.00 .

 Chuck 

[kac]

That is a cool tester, how does it react on plated stuff?

Really cool you found both ear rings.

 

[cuniagau]

23 minutes ago, kac said:

That is a cool tester, how does it react on plated stuff?

Really cool you found both ear rings.

 

It reads as NA.  If it is not gold, it reads NA.  I had several rings (not hallmarked) that had passed as 18K with the acid test and this thing called them NA.  I dug a big heavy (28.5g) chain today that was marked 14K and it tested NA.  Then I saw the fine print above the 14K that said "plated". LOL  I knew just from looking at it that it wasn't gold.  My eyesight is not that good and I didn't see the fine print until I looked at it with a loupe. Ha Ha 

I have checked several of my rings with it and it found one that is hallmarked 14K but it test 10K.  Good tester!

[cuniagau]

1 hour ago, Ridge Runner said:

Amazon has the same gold detector for 299.00 .

 Chuck 

That's pretty much the standard price at the places that carry it.

[Mikeguard01]

Congrats on the Silver and Gold. Nice save on the earrings. As others have said I really like that tester and can see buying one in the near future.

HH

Mike

 

[kac]

Awesome tester. I know if I bought one I would never find another ring, same with a diamond tester lol

[GB_Amateur]

Excellent catch and good lesson for some of us (particularly me) less-experienced jewelry detectorists.  Whoever made those butt-ugly mods needs to contact Phrunt for some lessons.

It appears that the ear hooks don't match.  Is either one gold?