On Mon, 26 Dec 2011 19:52:22 -0800, Steve B wrote:

I bought something neat at a swap meet. It is a peanut, 8.5" long, 3.5"
wide, and 2.5" high. Two pieces. It is fairly shiny on the inside.
Absolutely no identifying marks on it.

I Googled testing for silver, and they said use a dab of plain mustard.
I tried, and apparently it's not silver. What simple test can I perform
for aluminum? Apparently if it is aluminum, it is a harder alloy, as it
shines up pretty good. It feels heavy. It does not react whatsoever
to a magnet. My guess is aluminum.

Simple test for aluminum?
....

It's fairly easy to do an accurate density test if you have an
accurate scale. Density is a weight/volume ratio. Weigh the item on
the accurate scale (wi); weigh a container of water (ww); suspend the
item freely in the water and again weigh the container of water (ws).
The volume of the item, vi, displaces vi cc of water, so ws - ww in
grams is equal to the volume of the item in cc's. So item density
is wi/(ws-ww), which you can compare to aluminum's 2.7 density.

An example of the process (but without much explanation) is seen
in http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYdSEAm-7uI

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jiw