5 Biggest Gold Nuggets Ever Found

By the editor of jewago.com/blog


The gold nugget was the first gold found by man in the ancient times. Generally, nuggets are sparkling stones of vivid yellow color. They are found in various sizes, as well.

Usually, gold nuggets have been found above ground, particularly near river banks, on the surface of desolate plains and other similar places. However, desiring to know more about gold nuggets, we will discuss the history of significant discoveries.

Historical records

Noteworthy gold nuggets are real rarity because surface stones hardly ever have considerable weight. Usually, they weigh a bit more than 100 grams. In fact, gold nuggets of significant weight were first discovered deep under the ground. Oftentimes, these buried nuggets could weigh several kilograms.

Throughout history, gold prospectors have found approximately 10,000 significant gold nuggets. The weight of every one of these significant nuggets has been at least 10 kilograms. And most of these nuggets have been melted down and used for different purposes such as:

• Jewelry production;
• Equipment manufacturing;
• Other industrial purposes.

 
The historical discoveries of noteworthy gold nuggets are similar to that of historically noteworthy diamonds in that they are also given names and titles.

Moreover, most of these noteworthy gold nuggets are now in museums and private collections worldwide.

So, what are the most famous of them? 

Top 5 biggest nuggets
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    1.   Holtermann Nugget. This great find was discovered in Australia in 1872. Strictly speaking, the Holtermann nugget wassn’t a pure gold nugget because it contained a considerable amount of quartz. Its overall weight was 286 kilograms while the amount of pure gold was 92 kg. 

      2.    Welcome Stranger. This fantastic gold nugget was discovered in Australia. Incredible fortune smiled upon two miners – John Deason and Richard Oates on 5 February 1869. They both worked in the area of the gold mining town Moliagul. John and Richard found the nugget acccidentally while pulling a stuck cart out of the mud. Their picks struck something hard. After making several pick strokes, the miners understood that this was a big block located at a depth of about three centimeters. As it turned out later, this was the giant nugget that was to be called ‘Welcome Stranger’.  It weighed about 78.4 kg.
 

     3.   Great Triangle. The largest Russian nugget was found in the Southern Ural region in 1842. It was a practically flat slab of 8 centimeters thick that looked like a triangle. The sides of this stone measured 39, 33 and 25.4 cm. Its weight – 36.015, and probe – 900.6. This nugget is considered to be the biggest precious gold stone in the world at the present time (larger nuggets found abroad have been melted). Today, the Great Triangle is kept in the Diamond Reserve of the Russian Federation. 

      4.   Japanese. Japan is also distinguished in the mining of precious metals. A fantastic gold nugget was found there on Honshu Island in 1901. Its weight was 71 kilogram. Later it was named ‘Japanese’.


      5.   Hand of faith. This is one more wonderful gold nugget found with the help of a metal detector in 1980. It is of Australian origin. The history of this nugget is really interesting – Kelvin Hillier decided to try out his new metal detector in the small town where he lived. Imagine how surprised he was when he found this incredible gold nugget. It weighed 27 kilograms and was estimated to be worth about $1,000,000 dollars.

Historically, the biggest gold nuggets have most often been found in Australia. Many of these with the weight of several kilograms have been discovered in Victoria State.

Author bio: The author is the editor of jewago.com/blog – the blog that opens up the fantastic jewelry world and discovers the incredible things related to it!

Danielle Olivia Tefft’s Note: I hope you enjoyed this guest post!