Gold Powder anyone ?

[Geoff Wooff]

Some  years ago  I  came across  60 grams  of  powered gold  in a  carton full  cobbler's  tools  and materials.  Have never yet  found a use for  it  but  I assume  the  cobbler   was  embossing  boots and other  leather goods  or  making  'gold size'  perhaps.

 

Anyone  interested  in making an offer  ?

[alex_holden]

If it's real gold, 60g is worth a small fortune.

[Geoff Wooff]

Alex,  

 

a  small fortune  ?  Maybe the  value of  a  nice  concertina?

 

I took it to  one of  those  ' We  Buy  Gold'  shops  and  they  said  yes it  was  gold  alright,  probably  24 k   but  in powder form it  was  not   possible to  re use it  by  melting.  I  guess  there must  be a chemical  way  of  re-claiming  it  like they  do  with  silver  that  has been dissolved   during  film processing.

Edited August 1, 2020 by Geoff Wooff

[alex_holden]

22 minutes ago, Geoff Wooff said:

Alex,  

 

a  small fortune  ?  Maybe the  value of  a  nice  concertina?

 

I took it to  one of  those  ' We  Buy  Gold'  shops  and  they  said  yes it  was  gold  alright,  probably  24 k   but  in powder form it  was  not   possible to  re use it  by  melting.  I  guess  there must  be a chemical  way  of  re-claiming  it  like they  do  with  silver  that  has been dissolved   during  film processing.

Over €3000 if it was solid bullion. I don’t know how they do it but there are companies that specialise in recovering scrap, e.g. filings from the jewellery trade. I just Googled and found this company in London:

http://www.landalemetals.co.uk

[Geoff Wooff]

Thanks  Alex,  I'll check  them out.

[Stephen Chambers]

24ct gold powder sells for £119.95 (£143.94 Incl. Tax) per gram. https://www.stonehouses.co.uk/gold-imitation-leaf/genuine-gold-and-silver-powder.html

[Geoff Wooff]

5 hours ago, Stephen Chambers said:

24ct gold powder sells for £119.95 (£143.94 Incl. Tax) per gram. https://www.stonehouses.co.uk/gold-imitation-leaf/genuine-gold-and-silver-powder.html

 

Hmmm !  That is  a  considerable  sum.  Thank you  Stephen  !!   Perhaps  I  might get  an  Amboyna  or  Tortoise Shell  Aeola  out of the proceeds  if  I  can find anyone to  buy  the powder.

 

[Sprunghub]

I think this chap implies he gets 2.5gms of gold 'nugget'  from 1Lb of gold 'dust' after smelting.......?   I am hopeless at maths ( math ) so no idea of the implications for 60gms of dust.....

 

 

[alex_holden]

4 minutes ago, Sprunghub said:

I think this chap implies he gets 2.5gms of gold 'nugget'  from 1Lb of gold 'dust' after smelting.......?   I am hopeless at maths ( math ) so no idea of the implications for 60gms of dust.....

 

I don't know what his "gold powder" is; it looks more like dried mud than the high purity stuff you use for gilding.

[Sprunghub]

By the power of the mighty Google !!?

More Googling may suggest how they get it to "stay" bright gold ( to the eye ).....it makes little sense that a base metal 'powder' can not be reconstituted, but I don't know if they add something to it as an anti-oxidant for that perpetual brightness.

"The light brown powder is gold, if you crushed it with a glass stir rod it would look like gold, (or smeared in under pressure onto a piece of paper it would leave a gold streak), the pure powder will do this where impure gold will not do this or as well.
To get the brown powder look like gold it is melted, it has something to do with particle size and reflection of light as to why this fairly pure brown power does not look like gold."

[alex_holden]

33 minutes ago, Sprunghub said:

More Googling may suggest how they get it to "stay" bright gold ( to the eye ).....it makes little sense that a base metal 'powder' can not be reconstituted, but I don't know if they add something to it as an anti-oxidant for that perpetual brightness.

 

Hopefully the chap in the "we buy gold" shop was correct in his assessment that what Geoff has is high purity 24 carat gold powder like the stuff Stephen linked to, not a base metal bronzing powder.

 

I just read the description on the video above - he says this powder is from 1lb of "trimmed gold fingers". I think he means that he cut the gold-plated copper contacts off the edge connectors on printed circuit boards and ground them up.

[LateToTheGame]

I'm glad you are getting some second and third opinions.  The opinion of the We Buy Gold place seemed ill informed to me.  A lllllooooonnnnggg time ago my grandfather-in-law was a prospector in Oregon and Mexico.  These were in the days when the gold prices were strictly controlled at about $400.  But he had bought and sold enough raw dust and chunks the size of grains of sand to make a poor living.  This was the old guy with a shovel style prospecting so it was pretty labor intensive.  He had a glass pill bottle in his pocket filled with stuff which looked as much like glittery grit than anything else. He told us was worth $500.  Given his experience I had no reason to doubt him.  Minimum wage was $1.50 at the time.  Given how long he took to find the stuff I'm not sure how he fared compared to that hourly. 

[Geoff Wooff]

6 hours ago, LateToTheGame said:

I'm glad you are getting some second and third opinions.  The opinion of the We Buy Gold place seemed ill informed to me.  A lllllooooonnnnggg time ago my grandfather-in-law was a prospector in Oregon and Mexico.  These were in the days when the gold prices were strictly controlled at about $400.  But he had bought and sold enough raw dust and chunks the size of grains of sand to make a poor living.  This was the old guy with a shovel style prospecting so it was pretty labor intensive.  He had a glass pill bottle in his pocket filled with stuff which looked as much like glittery grit than anything else. He told us was worth $500.  Given his experience I had no reason to doubt him.  Minimum wage was $1.50 at the time.  Given how long he took to find the stuff I'm not sure how he fared compared to that hourly. 

I  can see there is  a  lot  of  difference  between    gold dust  or  gold ore  as  one hopes to  find when  prospecting  and    powdered  gold, which  is  what  I  found.  This powder is  so  fine  that  touch a finger to  it  and  smear it  very  finely  on  your  skin ,  like  make up,.  It is as smooth as silk .

 

[Milesy]

Intrigued by the posts, I did a bit of searching and found this: https://www.horikin.co.jp/english/powder/85#:~:text=Metal Powder-,Gold powder and other types of powder,called « Kindei » Gold Powder. 

Could this be what you have?

 

[DDF]

That reminded me of something that has been on a shelf in the workshop for years.I just dug it out and took a picture I bought it thinking it was gold but when you put a metal detector/stud detector over it it doesn't register.I just put some in a drop of nitric acid and nothing happened so I guess its mica or goodness knows what.I think it was the box it came in mislead me originally.

[LateToTheGame]

10 hours ago, DDF said:

That reminded me of something that has been on a shelf in the workshop for years.I just dug it out and took a picture I bought it thinking it was gold but when you put a metal detector/stud detector over it it doesn't register.I just put some in a drop of nitric acid and nothing happened so I guess its mica or goodness knows what.I think it was the box it came in mislead me originally.

There are a number of pigment powders that mimic gold.  I have a couple of peanut butter jars full of some.  I have a few boxes of powdered pigments from days when I had artistic aspirations.  I do also have some gold leaf that is light as a feather it is so thin.  I have no idea if it is actually gold or just gold like.  Though a stud detector would not likely register.  Or at least not the type I am thinking of that involves a magnet.  Gold like aluminium does  respond to a magnet..

[DDF]

I think the detector works by induction, it does sense  aluminium powder and gold metal.

[LateToTheGame]

2 hours ago, DDF said:

I think the detector works by induction, it does sense  aluminium powder and gold metal.

Cool!