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Surface contamination?

Started by stinkycheese1,

6 posts in this topic

stinkycheese1

stinkycheese1

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Hi everyone, haven't been on the boards much lately. Been practicing my magic alot lately.

 

I have a quick question on pure gold and copper spots. I have a 9999 fine gold 1 gram pamp suisse bar in its certificate/essay holder still. I bought it from a dealer at a local coin show awhile ago, last year. I just picked one at random, and then noticed it had what appears to be a copper spot or surface contamination on it. A red blob.

 

I'm curious as to , how can pure gold have copper spots? It's pure gold, there is no copper in the alloy. So I'm guessing its a surface contamination. It's nothing really, it just peaked my interest.

 

godbar.jpg

 

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MunkyMan95

MunkyMan95

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There IS a tiny amount of other materials in the bar. Pure gold would be too soft to make anything out of.

 

Having said that, I don't see what it can hurt. It's a small bar after all.

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stinkycheese1

stinkycheese1

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There IS a tiny amount of other materials in the bar. Pure gold would be too soft to make anything out of.

 

Having said that, I don't see what it can hurt. It's a small bar after all.

 

I'm sure it's worth its full amount. I see.

 

Thanks for the help. I didn't know pure gold had other metals in it.

 

 

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MunkyMan95

MunkyMan95

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It's not pure! That's my point. Even .99999 has .00001 extra stuff in it. And, in a bar that small, that .00001 may just end up on the surface.

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TomB

TomB

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I don't know what it is, but the color on my monitor of the gold bar is almost white while the spot is purple, so I will guess that the spot is actually more red in color. The position of it seems to be consistent with where an earing might be placed; do you think it is a decorative flake put in that position? Anyway, 0.9999 fine gold means that there is 0.0001 portion, or one-hundredth of one percent, other material in the bar. The other material is commonly copper or silver and this material might spot on the surface. Is this spot silver or copper? Who knows. If it is bothering you, you may want to go to a local dealer and trade it for a similar bar without the spot. Doing so might only cost you a few dollars in the exchange.

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