NATIVE Gold

Unknown Owner

We have here a rare example of Native Gold from the famous Hainzenberg gold mine in Tyrol, Austria. This ancient gold mine dates back to the 16th century and closed in the 1930s. Following this, in 1996, it reopened as a tourist mine and consequently the only specimens of Native Gold in collections predate this. This lovely rich specimen showing visible patches of Native Gold upon the classic quartzite or layered Milky Quartz veinstone comes with a fine old display label which has the year 1922 mentioned on the back. This label records the provenance as "Zillertal, Tirol", which although vague, was typical of earlier specimens from that mine. It is from the superb systematic collection assembled by the brothers Martin and Michael Günther (1951-2007 & 1956-2021).