Silver?

Trichter

Trichter

Member
Picked up these Nigerian ashtrays which were sold for $1 each and apparently "contain some silver", but I'm very skeptical to say the least. I ended up buying something else and they were thrown in for free. Any thoughts on content?

877_ashtray.jpg
 
Nigerians are well known for scams so wouldnt trust it, so him saying its nigerian is a hint its a scam lol
 
Argentum said:
Nigerians are well known for scams so wouldnt trust it, so him saying its nigerian is a hint its a scam lol
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Good point, not that I bought off Nigerians. Though I wouldn't seek to denigrate the entire country on the basis of one email scam either. I guess it's just copper and tin?
 
Argentum said:
Nigerians are well known for scams so wouldnt trust it, so him saying its nigerian is a hint its a scam lol
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I hasten to add they were selling a derelict Nigerian thumb piano too, so the elderly lady in question had some experience in the country.
 
mayb she got duped there buying it and if she passes it on to u she can feel better that shes not the only one. and also never heard of any silverware ashtrays, its like saying the queen in buckingham palace sits on agold toilet (24 ct gold not 9ct)
 
hotel 46 said:
most probably hubcaps stolen of a 1936 plymouth and been nigerianised. however i will say the table looks like it is made of a good hardwood. :lol:
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Yeah, I was thinking along those lines too. Waste not want not. The table is indeed hardwood, perhaps from Africa?
 
Argentum said:
mayb she got duped there buying it and if she passes it on to u she can feel better that shes not the only one. and also never heard of any silverware ashtrays, its like saying the queen in buckingham palace sits on agold toilet (24 ct gold not 9ct)
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Fair statement. I'm not sure if she believed what she was saying, but I thought so.
 
throw them in a ss frypan and chuck on a red hot fire preferably outside melt them and see what you get
 
hiho said:
throw them in a ss frypan and chuck on a red hot fire preferably outside melt them and see what you get
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stainless steel might work, but sterling melts at 900C. Hard to get that out of a wood fire unless you have motorized blowers on it.
 
Think you've much more chance of winning Nigerian national lottery... best have your bank details ready :p

Only kidding, I doubt there'll be any silver in those though, I'd keep them just for decoration, or sell them on for a tenner each, thats half a kook right there :)
 
Dissolve them in concentrated nitric acid (make sure you use a fume cupboard). Both copper and silver will dissolve but...copper dissolves and stays disolved better. If you then add pure copper it will exchange places with the dissolved silver and precipitate out as a gray solid, melt that down and you might have come rather impure silver, maybe 95% pure silver.

Of course if there is no silver in it you have just wasted dome nitric acid and some copper and a lot of time and quite probably some skin.

Head over to http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/ sign up for free and ask them, they are pretty good at that sort of thing
 
goldpelican said:
What city are you in? Chuck those babies on an XRF.

They don't look silver though.
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Yeah, that would do it but I'm not in Melbourne. You're right they don't really look like it. I might try to clean them up and then have a closer look, I'm not going to melt them down though (for what!). They both seemed fairly heavy which is why I thought, maybe, just maybe, there could be some silver in there. The postive thing was I got a good set of brand new mugs at the same garage sale. Score, I got 6 mugs for $10, the same ones are $25 for 4 here:

http://www.anygiftsdirect.com.au/shop/productDetail.cfm?id=15631

As for my junk silver hunting, no joy so far.
 
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