Gold - Crystallized Nugget
Unknown Owner
Help improve this recordNo owner is registered for this specimen yet. If it's yours or you know more about it, you can add the owner, provenance, publications and other details.
This is a CRYSTALLIZED gold nugget from Australia, a land where usually only rounded nuggets are found. I have seen MANY Aussie nuggets over the several decades I have dealt in such things, but out of all of them perhaps this is the most interesting to my tastes, in a large size and high-weight class. It is 850 grams (about 30 troy ounces), and over 4 inches tall. It is a nugget, with all the heft and visual impact you would expect,; but it is also strangely organic and alive-looking to me. It is a complex cluster of random rounded nugget gold intermixed with the occasional offshoot of crystalline gold - especially around the top of the specimen where you can clearly see a large, hoppered octohedral crystal sticking straight up. This is a very robust, 3-dimensional crystal, and it "makes the piece," so to speak. The color is a unique brassy hue, characteristic of Wedderburn material I am told. This came into the US first through a prominent collector who had bought it from well known gold dealer Anthony Fraser, in the early 2000's. I have now owned it twice, happily able to exchange it back about a year ago. I have not raised the price with regard to the intrinsic weight value of the specimen, compared to the old price plus a bit of reasonable appreciation I paid to get it back. In other words, if you value the weight content highly, this piece has it. But as a specimen, it does stand on its own merits at a multiple of spot that used to be 3-4X and is now not even 2X spot.
Product details
Known provenance
| Date | Collector | Acquisition price |
|---|---|---|
| 08/2024 | Unknown Owner | Not disclosed |
| — | The Arkenstone | Not disclosed |
Learn more
Mineral guide
Learn about Gold
iconic native metal with sculptural crystals, herringbone leaves, and rich yellow hues; prized by collectors for locality lore, rarity, and striking form.Regional guide
Comments