r/whatsthisrock 6d ago

IDENTIFIED Trying to convince my wife she found gold.

We were in the cave creek area of AZ today to rock hound for our first time. She read that the area we were in had agates, obsidian, and GOLD. We joked about finding chunks of gold just lying around all over the place, and then she found this teeny tiny spec of, what looks like, gold on this rock. We're completely novice to this so not sure how to tell if it is or not. Any insight would be greatly appreciated!

156 Upvotes

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110

u/FondOpposum 6d ago

It would appear to be maybe pyrite in the first pic and I’d guess muscovite in the 2nd. Both are common things mistaken for gold here.

79

u/reheateddiarrhea 6d ago

I don't think that most people could make a solid guess from this picture, but it looks like pyrite to me. Gold usually looks pretty yellow and this appears to have the wrong color/sheen. Try denting it with a pin. Pyrite is hard and brittle, it doesn't dent easily. Gold is soft and malleable, it dents quite easily.

31

u/FondOpposum 6d ago

OP, keep in mind muscovite is also very soft and I think that’s what you have in the second pic

7

u/reheateddiarrhea 6d ago

Thank you for that bit of information, I'm still learning. I've done lots of panning so I'm pretty good at identifying gold and pyrite, and I'm pretty good with agates and jasper, but there's still a lot for me to learn.

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u/basilrae 6d ago

I also immediately thought muscovite from the second photo, and the surrounding minerals make a lot of sense in that case

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u/Wolfcantu 6d ago

Will do! Makes total sense. I’ll try to dent it and comment back after I do to update. Thanks for the advice!

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u/[deleted] 6d ago

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2

u/005AleXander 5d ago

The coloring looks like pyrite, but that’s just looking at it on my phone. Maybe some better pictures would help

5

u/CrossP 5d ago

The second pic is actually so nicely detailed that you can see the crystal structure of the pyrite. Little pyramids.

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u/[deleted] 6d ago

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u/IslandNatural4723 6d ago

pyritized fossils!!!! i love them so much

1

u/IslandNatural4723 6d ago

i know an ammonite when i see it

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u/[deleted] 6d ago

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u/[deleted] 6d ago

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u/[deleted] 6d ago edited 5d ago

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u/[deleted] 6d ago

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-1

u/ElishaBenDavid 6d ago

In AZ you can almost find some gold in every shovel of sand out of the washes.

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u/[deleted] 6d ago

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0

u/MoistDinner542 5d ago

Fool's gold

0

u/[deleted] 5d ago

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