Hobbies And Interests
Home  >> Collecting >> Antiques

Varieties of Gold Nuggets

Gold nuggets are 10 times rarer than diamonds. Many are melted down for their gold value, making their raw form more valuable than their weight alone because of the desire for their beauty and artistry. Nuggets that resemble some form, such as a fish or bird, command a premium price. When most people talk about gold nuggets, they are speaking of placer gold nuggets. But there are also crystalline gold nuggets and different forms of gold crystals.
  1. Placer Gold Nuggets

    • Placer gold nuggets can be found in a stream.

      Placer gold nuggets are the most common. They are weathered and high in purity. 24-karat gold is the purest and does not contain other metal alloys. Placer gold is found at the surface of the earth. It is called placer gold because it has been deposited where it was formed and "placed" in a stream bed or hillside.

    Crystalline Gold Nuggets

    • Gold in quartz.

      Crystalline gold nuggets can be attached or detached from original quartz or other rock. They are rough and are very bright and flashy. They are valued for their shape and form. The crystals are very small and can be seen under magnification. They are delicate and harder to mine. Crystalline gold that has geometric crystals visible to the naked eye are called crystallized and are very rare.

    Crystal Nugget Patterns

    • Gold nuggets have crystal patterns that can be seen with the naked eye. Different crystal forms include wire, dendritic, hoppered, trigons, octahedrons, leaf, foil and plate. The wire form resembles a long thin wire and is extremely rare. The dendritic form features a treelike or leaf-like pattern. The hoppered form has a hole or interior space that is missing. Sometimes hopper gold has a chevron or triangular V shape that is pointed inward. The trigon form features gold crystals that grow in a pyramid shape. Trigons are the second-most-common form of crystalized gold. The octahedron form is eight-sided. Octahedron or octahedral gold is the most common form of gold crystallization. There are leaf, foil and plate forms of gold that grow in sheets and vary in their degree of thickness.

    Large Gold Nuggets

    • Tiny gold nuggets.

      John Deason and Richard Oates found the largest gold nugget to date, weighing 2326 troy oz., or 159.497 lbs., at Moliagul, Victoria, Australia, on Feb. 5, 1869. It was named the "Welcome Stranger." The largest gold mass ever found, weighing 9323.716 troy oz., or 639.340 lbs., was in 1872 at Hill End, New South Wales, Australia. It is known as the "Holtermann Nugget," though not technically a nugget. It was found in a vein of quartz. The "Welcome Stranger" and "Holterman Nugget" were melted down for their gold value. The largest gold nugget still in existence, weighing 876 troy oz., or 60.0685 lbs., was found in 1980 by Kevin Hillier. It is known as the "Hand of Faith" and is about 6 inches high and was purchased by the Golden Nugget Casino. The largest nugget found in Alaska weighed 294.10 troy oz., or 20.1668 lbs. It was found near Ruby Alaska in 1998 by Barry Clay and is known as "The Alaska Centennial Nugget." When it was sold, its location was not available to the public.


https://www.htfbw.com © Hobbies And Interests