A Whatsit? Are they real?

[Jeff in Pa]

I found this just outside the front door of a home from the 1860's that used to be tavern. I figured it was a small round piece of lead at 5", well it feels like lead but look at the design and stones. What is it and could they be real? Its about the size of a nickel.

BTW

This rang in on my Etrac jumping from 29 to 30 on the conductive side.

Well alot of you know that lead will be a 30 or 31 conductive and usually a single digit Ferrous number, anything above that starts to fall into the Indians if it PP's like a coin and is fairly consistant.

This one was just a little low on the conductive side. That 29 had me wondering before I dug it. Pewter? I really dout it's Pewter but it just don't "feel" quite heavy enough to be lead buts its definately something similar to lead.

Dunno about this Whatsit and I hate not knowing what anything is I dig. Metal composition, size and shape are very important to me. Those things in-turn help me determine what the next target will be.

I will research and determine, or maybe someone here will recognize it and let us know.

 

[charlie dert]

General rule of thumb is crap metal...crap stones..I have found gold plated silver rings and solid silver rings with cz's and other junk stones as well...even good gold items sometimes have junk settings. Cool find though. My advice is find a jeweler you can trust and take all items in question to be checked by a professional.