The Butte Nugget is proof that not all of the big gold nuggets have been found. Its total weight is 75 troy ounces! The nugget was sold to a secret buyer for $400,000. The nugget is clean, smooth, and is solid gold with no quartz inclusions.
It comes from Butte County, a very rich region of California’s Mother Lode. It weighs 156 troy ounces.Ĭertainly the largest recent discovery in the United States is the Butte Nugget, which was found in 2014 by an unnamed gold prospector using a metal detector. Many people claim have inaccurately said that the Mojave Nugget was the largest ever found in California, but there have been many larger nuggets found in the state, although very few of them exist today. It is believed to be the largest nugget found in the Randsburg district. The finder was named Ty Paulsen, and it was found in 1977. Some of the best gold mining in southern California is around Randsburg. The richest areas here are near Randsburg, a famous mining town in southern California. One of the best metal detector discoveries from the state of California would have to be the huge Mojave Nugget, which was unearthed by a gold prospector using a detector in the Mojave Desert in Kern County. In 2012, a robbery occurred here and several million of dollars in gold nuggets were stolen from the museum, but the Fricot Nugget was not taken. The nugget is part of the gold nugget collection at the California State Mining and Mineral Museum. This solid piece of crystalline gold was eventually purchased by Mr. The nugget weighs over 200 troy ounces and is one of the finest remaining specimens documenting the California Gold Rush. The specimen was found several hundred feet below the surface in a mine. The finder was a man named William Russell who operated a mine at the Spanish Dry Diggings. It was found in El Dorado County, some of the richest gold mining ground on Earth. The Fricot Nugget was found in 1865, and it is one of the largest pieces of crystalline gold from California. These 3 gold nuggets were saved from the smelter, and still exist today. Most of the big nuggets that were found during the gold rush were melted down. Casts made of the largest gold nugget ever found are based purely on memory and hand drawn sketches of the original nugget.Most of the largest gold nuggets found in the United States have come from California. Sadly, not only was this huge gold nugget broken apart and smelted, but no casts were made of the actual nugget itself. Regardless, it is without a doubt the largest solid gold nugget ever known to be discovered in history. This may be part of the reason for the variations in the recorded weight. It was also reported that while the nugget was being broken apart, several pieces of the nugget were handed out to friends and onlookers. The most common size claims that the total weight was 2,284 troy ounces, while a publication from the Department of Mines in Victoria titled “Gold Nuggets of Victoria” states that the actual weight was 2,280 troy ounces. There are various different reports of the actual weight of the Welcome Stranger nugget.
A sledge hammer and cold chisel made quick work of the nugget, and it was soon broken down into three chunks that were more manageable to handle. Word had spread across the local area, and crowds of people had gathered at the bank to catch a glimpse of the huge nugget.Īs was so commonly done in those days, the Welcome Stranger was quickly broken apart so it could be more easily transported and smelted.
The two men took the nugget to the nearby town of Dunolly, where they further transported it to the London Chartered Bank. Upon bending down to examine the obstacle he thought was in his way, he unearthed the massive nugget from its resting place. The story goes that Deason was working near the root of a tree with his mining pick and struck something hard.
They had various levels of success, some weeks they only produced a small amount of gold, although they had previously discovered several large nuggets in the general area the Welcome Stranger was eventually found. It was found on February 5, 1869.īoth men were working miners, and had been gold mining in this area for several years. It was found by John Deason and Richard Oates at Black Lead, Bulldog Gully, near the town of Dunolly in Victoria, Australia. The world’s biggest gold nugget ever found is the Welcome Stranger nugget.
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