4/8/19 Report - How To Better Analyze Your Finds - XRF Analysis. Waterspouts. Two Types of Treasure.

Written by the TresaureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.

Desktop and Handheld XRF Analyzers.

I get a lot of questions asking about finds.  People want to know what their items are and how old they are.  One thing you might want to find out is the type of metal, and if a precious metal, the purity.

An acid test is one thing you might do to determine the metal and purity.  I've discussed acid tests in this blog in the past.  

There are some problems with acid testing.  For one thing, you have to scrape the item on a touch-stone.  You might not want to do that to something like a coin that could be valuable.

XRF analysis is a more modern method of testing metals.  It is non-destructive and more accurate than an acid test.

Many jewelry stores and pawn shops have an XRF analyzer.  You can get one of the more economical handheld models for not much more than a high end metal detector. 

The picture above shows an XRF desktop model and a hand-held analyzer. That picture and the two pictures below are from ThermoScientific.com.

Here is an example of an XRF analysis of a gold chain.

The analysis of the chain shows that it was made of gold, copper, zinc and silver.

As you probably know, an item like a gold ring will not be made of pure gold.  It will usually contain an alloy - very often copper.  XRF analysis can tell you not only what metals are present but also the percentage of each.

According to Thermo Scientific, Portable XRF analyzers are ideal for the retail environment. Many jewelers and pawn shops are using these instruments to test the purity and composition of precious metals. XRF quickly provides the exact percentages of all elements within an item – easily identifying non-standard, under-karated, and even sophisticated counterfeit precious metals that acid testing is incapable of differentiating...

Here is another example.

This analysis shows that the gold plated replica of an American Buffalo coin contains mostly copper, but also zinc, and a smaller amount of gold.

Click here to go to the Thermo Scientific site to learn more about XRF analysis.

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Huge Waterspout

Source: See Spiritdaily link below.

One of the nice things about being on the beach a lot is some of the sights.

I saw a smaller waterspout hit Fort Lauderdale Beach.

Here is the link for more about waterspouts.

https://spiritdaily.org/blog/news/apocalyptic-water-tornado-speeds-toward-city-leaving-buildings-in-ruins

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Another one of the gang had heart surgery.  This time is was Dan B.

If you don't know about Dan, he was working on the Capitana when one of the greatest finds of Treasure Coast history was made back in 2015.  You can still go back in this blog and see photos of the gold coins, including the Royals that were found.

Pray for Dan.

It teaches you a lot when you go through something like that.  I thought I was going to die back a number of years ago. You can learn a lot during a time like that.  Faith helps.

As I told Dan, It is the storms of life that uncover the biggest treasures.

It was a very spiritual time for me.

Treasure hunting can teach many life lessons.  It is no wonder that "treasure" is mentioned so many times in the Bible and other spiritual books.

For example, Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

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The Treasure Coast surf will be down around two feet for a few days.  There will be a negative low tide.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net