The Second Largest Gold Nugget Discovered - The Welcome Nugget
After posting about the largest gold nugget ever discovered, The Welcome Stranger, I have some more nuggety information for you.
In June 1858, The Welcome Nugget was discovered in Ballarat, Victoria, Australia. At the time, it was the largest gold nugget ever discovered weighing in at 2,218 troy ounces (69.0 kg). The Welcome Stranger nugget was unearthed a decade later to become the largest, but the Welcome Nugget still holds the record for the second largest pure gold nugget at 99.6% purity. The nugget was unearthed by a group of Cornish Miners working for the Red Hill Mining company. One of the miners, Richard Jeffery, took it home in a wheelbarrow and stored it in the oven until the morning.
After showing the nugget off to crowds in Melbourne, The Welcome Nugget was eventually sold for 10,500 pounds and shipped back to London. The Royal Mint then melted the nugget down into Gold Sovereigns.
A replica now stands in the Ballarat Gold Museum.
Thanks for reading.
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That's one sexy nugget!
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Wish I could find a Gold nugget even one tenth that size😁
Dang, that is pretty awesome. It reminds me of the big hunk of copper that they have on display at the mine I visited this past summer. It is on a cart and it is huge!
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I can only have wet dreams about owning this chunk of madness. !!
Damn, that is truly a magnificent Nug.
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That's crazy... I want to have one like that!!!
Yes, that is so cool, @scooter77. The Smithsonian Institute, in Washington, DC, USA, has an impressive collection of Gold Nuggets, that are just too spectacular to melt down. Some small but intriguing. It is worth checking out if one is in the neighborhood. Not to mention the unbelievable Lilly Gold Coin Collection.