Rick, I doubt what you have is gold, one of the propertys of gold is that it dosn' corode. Even coins that have been in the ocean for 100s of years come out like they just came from the mint for the most part. Mecury will bond with gold and discolor, if I remember right the old prospectors would mix mercury with the gold flakes so they could recover the tiny stuff and then burn the mercury off in a forge. You might have some sort of copper or copper alloy, I had a friend that found a large copper cent and it had a green crust on it, he was soaking it in olive oil in an attempt to get the corosion off of it. I am sure there is someone on here that knows much more about this stuff that can help you. Mike M
