George N. M.

Lovely, lovely stuff.  If you don't mind saying (no problem if you want to keep it confidential) but how much did the customer have to pay for the gate.  IMO if you took less than 50k UK pounds you got taken advantage of.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

Lynn, Mike most recently posted on this forum 13 years ago (2009).  You might send him a private message by clicking on his avatar and see if he responds.  I see there are many carpet bags for sale on the internet and some of them have the same hinged frame as shown in Mike's.

Good luck.

GNM

Unfortunately, gold does not usually occur in sedimentary rocks like coal.  So, clinker is mainly silica.  Think sand and dust that washed and blew into the marshes that eventually turned into coal.

There is one type of gold deposit in sedimentary rocks, the "fossil placer."  Whis is where an ancient stream had gold washed into it from an igneous or metamorphic source and was then buried and turned into sandstone. 

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

I would guess that it is a fire steel combination tool.  The cross hatching on the main body would indicate to me that it was originally a file.  The point on the body would have been used for knapping flint.  I'm not sure about the other 2 tools.  The sharp one may have3 been a punch of some sort.  The other one is more problematic.  Possibly a blade of some sort. Also, the sharp hinged tool could have had and end like a spoon, common for Roman implements, used for personal grooming, but it has rusted away.

I'm not as sure as Thomas about a Roman date although that is possible.  There have been similar tools in various cultures at various times.  The narrowing of the pointed tool near the hinge does look like Roman style, though.

Do you have any idea of provenance, where it is from and how it might have been found?

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."