A 'real' Artifact?

[mn90403]

I got up early this morning to hit the beach.  To my dismay the targets were few and far between.  The wave energy and tides made for a pillowy sand but all the targets are still in the water somewhere.  I walked about 4 miles for these few things.  At about the half mile mark I did find a target that I said to myself made the trip worth it.  It was still mostly dark when I found it but it was not that heavy.  Later about the 2 mile mark I found the silver ring with the garnet/ruby on it.

I helped a cormorant get put into a bird box about the 2.5 mile mark after I saved it from the dogs.

 

 

The cross is 'odd' to me for several reasons.  It is not marked.  It looks like a hand pour with imperfections on the back and at the end of one arm of the cross.  The number on my Nox 800 was a solid 21 which would be close to penny which means copper.  There is a slight staining on it which made me think of rust.  I checked its 21.9 grams with a super magnet and it is slightly attracted but I can't pick up the cross with the magnet.

 

The reverse side shows the pour imperfections.

 

These pictures show the defect and the source of staining but also some blue green corrosion but very little.  The top of the cross is one piece.  I get the impression that someone 'touched it up' with a file.

 

I have no idea of the patterns on the cross and why it is not more corroded.

Does anyone know how this type of real or fake cross would be made?

Mitchel

[Againstmywill]

1 hour ago, mn90403 said:

Does anyone know how this type of real or fake cross would be made?

Just a wild guess...a pew(t)er cross made for the Knights Templars by Sir Francis Bacon...or a lead cross made from metal mined in France. You may want to take it to a blacksmith to find out how it was made. I'm guessing that carbon dating may show that it was from the 1600s, +/- 400 years. Yes, my Tuesday evening revolves around The Curse of Oak Island.😉

Cool looking cross!

[mn90403]

Do you think I could link it to that show ... what's the name again?  haha

[GB_Amateur]

8 hours ago, mn90403 said:

I have no idea of the patterns on the cross and why it is not more corroded.

Just a WAG -- could it be incomplete alloy of silver and copper?  (But you said it was weakly attracted to a magnet....)  Very surprising it doesn't show more corrsion.

[F350Platinum]

I took the liberty of downloading your photo of the cross, and found them for sale on Etsy at one time, advertised as "Ethiopian Christian cross". They are no longer available but here we are. 🙂

First time reverse image search has ever nailed it for me... 🤔

[Againstmywill]

9 minutes ago, F350Platinum said:

I took the liberty of downloading your photo of the cross, and found them for sale on Etsy at one time, advertised as "Ethiopian Christian cross". They are no longer available but here we are. 🙂

First time reverse image search has ever nailed it for me... 🤔

Nice find, F350! Wanted to add that it also called it a silver Christian cross. Not sure about the silver content, but maybe they meant the color of it?

[Againstmywill]

It may be really tarnished silver in that one spot. Here is a silver half dollar that was crusty when it came out of the ground, but it cleaned up well.

[F350Platinum]

7 minutes ago, Againstmywill said:

Not sure about the silver content

Here's something about content I found, your post had me intrigued, perhaps they used rhodium or something to "jazz it up":

Paramagnetic materials - have small, positive susceptibility to magnetic fields (having a slight attraction to magnets). Although a magnetic field slightly attracts these materials, the article does not retain the magnetic properties when the external magnetic field gets removed. Paramagnetic properties are a result of the presence of some unpaired electrons and from the realignment of the electron paths caused by the external magnetic field. Paramagnetic materials include palladium, platinum, rhodium, rhenium, ruthenium, magnesium, molybdenum, lithium, and tantalum.

[mn90403]

Thank you guys.  It's hard to find research time with a 3 year old and a 4 month old!  I had a feeling this was 'different' than any other cross I've found. 

[mn90403]

1 hour ago, F350Platinum said:

Here's something about content I found, your post had me intrigued, perhaps they used rhodium or something to "jazz it up":

I've found that different parts of the cross are more magnetic than others so the 'jazz it up" idea is alive.  It doesn't seem to have been completely melted together thus the pocks and the defect at one end.

I've attempted to clean it as I do all silver rings found in the water and it did not respond by producing bubbles or burning a whole in the aluminum when baking soda and salt were added.  I'll just have to have an XRF gun shoot it when I get a chance.