Thar’s Gold in Them Thar Hills

This time it’s the hills of California, Nevada County, to be more precise, just north east of Sacramento.

Did you hear about the 100 ounce gold nugget auctioned this week in Sacramento at the Golden West Auction?

The owner found the nugget roughly a year ago on his property. Back in the gold rush days of the 19th century, the experienced and inexperienced miners applied many picks and shovels to this same land.

The auction this week happened to occur at the same time as the ANA in Sacramento. If you’re going to the ANA, the large nugget will be on display.

However, it did sell for $460,000 including the price for the gold and the auction fees.

Take a look at these links to learn more.

It wasn’t a case of stumbling over a gold rock. They used technology and a back hoe as described in this article.

Gold Nugget Finder Hopes to Strike It Rich at Auction

As an aside, you may remember Mr. Holabird, who is mentioned in the article, from the book we highlighted several weeks ago: Gold! At Pigeon Roost .    He and Al Adams co-wrote the book about gold in North Georgia.

Here’s another article about the auction:

Auctioneer Sells ‘Washington Nugget’ for $460,000

Another view on the auction:

Huge Washington Nugget Goes for $400,000 at Auction  (They didn’t include the auction fee in their amount.)

Another California newspaper had this article:

Gold Nugget, 8.2 Pounds, Auctioned for $460,000

Now, it’s interesting to see the varying sizes for the nugget, anywhere from just under seven pounds to over eight pounds. The explanation is in their math.

First, remember gold’s weight is measured in troy ounces.

One hundred troy ounces equals just over eight troy pounds (12 troy ounces to a troy pound). However, to make things more confusing, the troy pound is not used very frequently. As a result, the 100 troy ounces equal 6.85 avoirdupois pounds, the weight scale we use for most everyday items. For a third alternative, those who forget the gold’s ounces are troy weight and divide by 16 instead would arrive at 6.25 pounds.

It’s easier all around to just say, “The nugget weighed 100 ounces.” But, since people perceive pounds easier than 100 ounces, the various writers attempted to help their readers.

Now for comparison of size, here’s a site showing the largest nuggets found in Alaska in decreasing size:

Alaska’s Largest Gold Nuggets

The Washington Nugget from California would fit between #6 and #7.

Success stories like this resurrect the adventurer and the treasure hunter in all of us.