The so-called Washington Nugget weighs almost 100 troy ounces – about 7 pounds – and had been listed with a public auction estimate of $250,000 to $400,000. Besides the sales cost, the buyer has to pay $60,000 to the auction house.
PRLog (Press Release) – Mar 17, 2011 – The massive gold nugget discovered last year in Nevada County ended up selling this week in Sacramento to a nameless bidder for $400,000.
The so-called Washington Nugget weighs almost 100 troy ounces – about 7 pounds – and had been listed with a public auction estimate of $250,000 to $400,000. Besides the sales cost, the buyer has to pay $60,000 to the auction house. Visit http://silverdollar.cc
The purchaser did not show up at the auction. The buyer’s bids had been made by a representative from Spectrum Numismatics International.
Due to its unusual size, the gold nugget brought a price over its pure gold worth.
Fred Holabird, whose Holabird-Kagin Americana is managing the auction, which consists of hundreds of lots, points to it as the largest complete California gold nugget. Go to http://silver-dollar-values.com
The finding in Nevada County of an almost 7-pound gold nugget this past year has been referred to as a one-in-a-billion discovery. Nowadays, on the eve of the so-called Washington Nugget’s sale in Sacramento, its locater has told his story. Along with uncommon luck, it is a story of geological understanding, high technologies and elbow grease. As well as fear. He’s scared to keep his gold nugget at home.
The find was definitely not total luck. The Nevada County homeowner had his undeveloped property – not far away from the old mining community of Washington – assayed by an expert for feasible gold deposits. Basically to see what gold could be down to the first 10 feet.
There was a handful of fine gold, along with a hint that there may be much more within the bedrock underneath the old mining tailings.
Understanding how Gold Rush lodes had been discovered in comparable bedrock it brought them to believe there might be some gold all the way down there.
A good friend brought in a type of equipment referred to as ground-penetrating radar. Comparable equipment is utilized to locate sewer lines underground, or possible historical sites buried beneath hundreds of years of dirt. In this instance, it revealed the rest of the land buried underneath a yard or more of old gold mine tailings. Go to http://silver-dollar-values.net
They discovered an anomaly – a crevice or crack that suggested that could be a great target to take a look at. Such crevices occasionally trapped nuggets. This one was inside 10 feet down – the outside limitation for their backhoe.
Following digging, they utilized a metal sensor that can differentiate between gold and iron metals.
They began to make use of the gold detector and they got an extremely powerful signal. It informed them where – within one square foot – to target shovels as well as pry bars. All of the time, they had been working through groundwater that leaked in as they shoveled.
They discovered two other smaller nuggets of under a pound – almost 4 and 10 troy ounces each.
The finder, in the mean time, has hopes of going back to his land whenever it becomes drier to see if there’s more gold there.