All I ever find are old beer pull tabs and bottle tops................
The gold would definitely ring out like foil and tabs but with silver near/with it it was probably a good clean signal at decent depth. If it was near surface one can pass over something like that and assume its a couple of smashed cans or similar.
I dug a target once that I knew prior dirt fishers had passed (because it sounded exactly like a smashed can) and it turned out to be a bent sterling silver fork about 2 ounces in weight.