anyone ever cash in "dental gold"

i have a old gold cap from a tooth.. my grandfathers had this tooth pulled and he asked me if i wanted to sell it for gold..

anyone have any experience with this.. did you seperate the tooth from the cap first??

and did you send it out or just to a local gold buyer..

Kinda weird if u ask me..handling his tooth n all..but I have to admit I already asked my father in law for his..id call around asking the gold dudes what u could get as is

I usually pull the tooth out from the gold or hit it with a hammer to get it out. If your handling it allot you might want to hit it with a torch to kill any bacteria. I would look at midwest or another refiner, you will get more money from them than from a local. It should run around 16k. It would also sell good on ebay, sometimes even more than its worth.

but is it worth shipping just one cap.. im assuming it has to weigh less than a 1/4 oz and is most likely 16 or 18 ct.. so your talking like 150 200 bucks?? after you ship it and insure it i might be better off local..

i wish i could just melt it down to a little round coin or something.. that would be different

Originally Posted by scrappy888

Kinda weird if u ask me..handling his tooth n all..but I have to admit I already asked my father in law for his..id call around asking the gold dudes what u could get as is

ya it is wierd lol.. i was over his house and he was like here catch.. throws me it and i look and its a tooth that was pulled hours earlier hahaha.. he like you think we can get some money for that gold!

i was like ya ill find out but wrap that thing up lol

Dental gold is usually alloyed with other precious metals from the platinum group to make it more durable, this is one reason why it sells for so much on ebay.

If you decide to melt the tooth you'll regret doing so, the metals alloyed with the gold react like the cream in milk that rises to the top. The alloys seperate and you loose the luster of your gold, my suggestion is to leave it as is.

Melting gold in an induction furnace is about the only furnace known to stir the alloys while melting, otherwise you have to use a carbon rod to stir the molten metals to keep them homogenized. It's not than easy.

Once the metals separate during the melt you'll never get a good XRF reading from the nugget, you will have rendered you precious gold into a worthless lump.

Originally Posted by gustavus

Dental gold is usually alloyed with other precious metals from the platinum group to make it more durable, this is one reason why it sells for so much on ebay.

If you decide to melt the tooth you'll regret doing so, the metals alloyed with the gold react like the cream in milk that rises to the top. The alloys seperate and you loose the luster of your gold, my suggestion is to leave it as is.

Melting gold in an induction furnace is about the only furnace known to stir the alloys while melting, otherwise you have to use a carbon rod to stir the molten metals to keep them homogenized. It's not than easy.

Once the metals separate during the melt you'll never get a good XRF reading from the nugget, you will have rendered you precious gold into a worthless lump.

awesome thanks for the info..

gonna try and seperate the tooth next week.. maybe some heat a hammer and vice should do the trick..

a propane torch should not heat it umuchp too to affect any of the gold qualitys correct?

really?? coke, pepsi or clr will completely dissolve the tooth?? and wont harm the gold..


how long of a soak are we talking.. 3 or 4 days or months?

Originally Posted by 89yota

really?? coke, pepsi or clr will completely dissolve the tooth?? and wont harm the gold..

Phosphoric acid in sodas nearly as damaging to teeth as battery acid

Originally Posted by 89yota

really?? coke, pepsi or clr will completely dissolve the tooth?? and wont harm the gold..


how long of a soak are we talking.. 3 or 4 days or months?

I don't know if it will harm the gold but a soak in coke or pepsi should only take 24 hours to destroy all the calcium in the tooth. It will probably be rubbery after that, or non-existent.