Tiny Gold contacts in relays, esp reed relays

I have been scrapping relays & contacts for a while. I have about 2 ounces of 'just silver' contacts so far.



But I have found some gold plated silver contacts & now a few 'pure gold bar' contacts.

I call them that 'cous they look like a tiny gold bar. I cannot find any pics of them, or get my camera to get that close to them.

Most obvious place to find them gold bars is in the back of a older rotary dialing telephone.
The others are in tiny relays, like the 'reed relays'.
And the typical microwave safety type switch, but in higher end electronics.

The bar is small (normally 0.8mm x 0.8mm x 1.2mm or such) & a 'bar' shape, or a 'loaf of bread' shape.

I have found a few of them that seem to be silver (the silver/black colour of silver oxide, or just silver) same shape etc.

Does anyone else find these? I wonder what they weigh since my scales are not that accurate.

One reed relay has about 6 of them. Most have two contacts.
They are just getting put aside at the moment because its a pain to pick them off the metal strip & are far to easy to loose on the floor.

i took these shots back on 1/1/13 and then forgot where i put them so they dont get lost

if i remember right where i found them they were in an old telephone relay switch from late 50's

somewhere in a box is a jar with a bunch of them.....:confused:

This is likely Palladium, not gold. Hammond electronic organs have these on each "key". Here's a couple of pix of Hammond organ keys with the Palladium contacts. The older ones even had long wires of Paladium in them.