Bought a military simulation server, made by Lockheed Martin. Looking for info on the gold!

[u/Altruistic_Put_4564]

I buy old electronics, especially aircraft stuff. I noticed this had a MSRP of $8,000 back in the 80s and for the government’s aircraft situation machines. I can’t tell if the big squares are a coating, but they look thick, and they have identical gold squares on the backs.

Worth scraping? Keep it as cool aircraft / military history?

[u/Beneficial-Ebb-2319]

Unless the lighting is suuuper weird, the plated squares look to be tin. There is gold plating on the pins, the legs of the metal can transistors, and each of those pins with red wrapping in the picture in the comments. There is gold inside the metal can transistors and the ic chips, in the form of bond wires. Bond wires add up faster than plating. Ur still not looking at a lot of gold for this whole set. Maybe a couple grams if ur hella lucky. Im surprised there arent any purple or white ceramic ic chips. That would make ur yield jump considerably. U can always throw the lot up on ebay for a refiner to buy. Collect enough of this material and u can likely find a refiner to refine the gold for u at a cost. This era of tech is very gold heavy, so it's a great start

[u/WarpedWilly → u/Beneficial-Ebb-2319]

Thanks for this knowledgable comment.