Could This Be Gold???

[piper67]

I found this rock ??  Does anyone know what this is??

Any info would be great.

[Geologyhound]

Did you find this in a fairly dry environment? The exterior of the “rock” appears to have sand sized particles cemented around it. If you brush it or rub it with your fingers, do any grains fall off?  Such a “shell“ around a rock could be a weathering rind, or it could be a cemented crust.  In this case, the appearance makes me think you may have a calcite cemented (caliche) crust. Caliche crusts are common in arid environments.  If you drop a little dilute hydrochloric acid on the surface and it fizzes, that would confirm it.  In this case I would further guess the rest of the “rock“ is actually a calcite cemented sandstone, and that calcite helped cement the crust.

[chrisski]

I see nothing resembling gold.