8 out of 10 of the largest Gold Nuggets ever found were here in Australia. To me that makes Australia quite unique and to my way of thinking these giant Gold Nuggets should be National Treasures. But in typical Australian fashion we don’t seem to care much about the uniqueness of our land and many of these huge Gold Nuggets have been melted down and sold off over the years.
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When I toured the Montreal Goldfields recently it got me thinking about these National Treasures so I started to do a bit of digging (metaphorically, of course) to find out where these things have ended up. Maybe as a self-confessed Gold Bug I am biased, but they would make great tourist attractions and certainly I would like to see them on display somewhere.
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The biggest nugget ever found was the Welcome Stranger (3,523 oz) and was sold to the London Chartered Bank of Australia and melted. The second biggest was called The Welcome (2,217 oz) and it was also melted down by the Royal Mint and turned into Sovereigns. Please excuse me while I wipe away a tear….
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We have to get down to number #3 which is The Hand of Faith (875 oz) to find a surviving nugget. It was sold to the Gold Nugget Casino in Las Vegas Nevada, USA. It is currently on display in the casino lobby on East Freemont Street. I think I have actually seen it in real life though I was probably drunk at the time so it might have just been a wonderful dream.
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Beyond that we go to #5 on the list with the Normandy Nugget (820 oz) which was found more recently in 1995, but it is the largest Gold Nugget on display IN Australia. It was purchased by Newmont Gold Corporation (an American company) but is on display in the Museum of the Perth Mint based on a long term agreement. So, we don’t own it but at least we can look at it….
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The other really interesting Australian nugget is the Latrobe Nugget (717 grams) because it is one of the largest clusters of cubic gold in the world. It survives on display at the Natural History Museum in London. While it might not be one of the biggest by weight it is certainly one of the big ones by uniqueness so I would still consider it a National Treasure.
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So all up, of all of these National Treasures they’ve either been sold off or melted. Only 1 is actually on display in Australia and we don’t even own it. I guess that I should not be surprised by all this, but with a country as young as ours compared to others around the world it is disappointing that we don’t even recognise our uniqueness and cherish our own National Treasures.
http://www.australian-gold.com http://www.australiangeographic.com.au https://www.cnbc.com https://www.bullionstar.com https://en.wikipedia.org
It survives on display at the Natural History Museum in London. While it might not be one of the biggest by weight it is certainly one of the big ones by uniqueness.
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Those are some cool facts. Sorry you don't have the gold still. Seems like they would have wanted to keep the biggest ones, but I guess not. Too much money to be made selling them off. Sorry, buddy.
I think times are changing. Back when those big nuggets were found we were still basically an English colony. The more recent one is on display and hopefully when we find a big one now we will put it on display.
To make it even worse the yearly nugget gold coin was replaced by a kangaroo some years ago.
Yeh, I have one of those but I admit the kangaroo looks a nicer coin design than a nugget, but still would like to see the big nuggets on display somewhere :)
I know if I was to find a sizeable nugget I would happily sell it off to take the profits from my find, not without some good photos first of course! You have to remember that we, the general public don't usually find out about these finds until the sale has already gone through. Things are kept VERY hush hush up until then.
I'm not sure how many people are lining up to own a gold nugget without the intention of melting it down, other than companies, organisations etc which may have a special interest. I do however admire the respect you show towards their uniqueness!
Thanks. I guess it is a function of the market. I'd imagine in those days the nugget was sold for under-spot price due to it needing to be refined. But now people pay a premium for a decent nugget so maybe a big nugget is more likely to be bought for the purpose of display if they bid more than melt price.
I know that they found some monster nuggets in the Gympie Gold fields in the late 1800’s
Yep, many of these were found in the Victorian area in the late 1800s.
Do you know how much weight in pure gold did one of these nuggets have? Of course, should be an average purity, like 70%, 80%, etc.
No, I don't know. Sorry.
Sad the big ones got melted. Those would have been awesome to see in real life. Cool post.
I think most of those 8 were found in Victoria's Golden Triangle as well, great post thanks for sharing cheers mate.
Thanks. Victoria sure was the place to be for a while. Though with all the gold in WA you'd have to wonder if there are some yet to be discovered.
They found the Golden Eagle in WA, it was 35.326 kg.
Nice one! I hadn't heard of the Golden Eagle. I wonder why it wasn't in the list I found of the biggest nuggets.
Just happen to be walking through the bush and run across on of these natural nuggets, it would be a great day in lucky discovery day.
Interesting @buggedout I shared my gold adventure on dtube this morning.
Oh, how I wish to have one of those...
if his interests for the people ... no problem was taken to have a state, which is important his people prosperous and prosperous .. the word basic word has people for the people ..
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