10 lb Nugget!

[mn90403]

Did this nugget get discussed here?  I don't remember.

 

Australian man using low-budget metal detector finds 10-pound piece of gold worth $160,000 - ProjectHighArt

https://projecthighart.net/australian-man-using-low-budget-metal-detector-finds-10-pound-piece-of-gold-worth-160000/ 

[geof_junk]

The prices quoted say it was found over 6 years ago. A lot of gold is showing so the total of 83 Oz. seems a far amount. I found 7½ plus pound specimen that showed very little gold but yielded 17 Oz. way back in the late 2000s. but mine went to the dolly pot.

[Wild Bill]

I wish I had a photo of the pile of quartz high grade specimens heaped in the bed of a 4x4 pickup back in the 1980s.  I was outside the maintenance shop in the yard working on a friend’s Cat equipment when they pulled in and he called me over to see it.  He was working on an access road with his 941 track loader above Gold Point Mine between Downieville & Sierra City north of Hwy 49 when he dug it up.  I never knew the exact location but somewhere up there.   There was certainly hundreds of ounces in all that quartz.  

[beatup]

good looking specimen piece

[GotAU?]

Let’s see Gerry put one of those in his mouth!

It looks rough but also tumbled a bit- hope that guy claimed where he found it and did some digging and dryblowing around that area, there’s bound to be a lot of small bits and pieces around where he found it. 

[geof_junk]

A mate of 11 years in Leonora Aus. back in the very early days was a full time prospector and hit a reef out crop and put most of it in his 4WD ute. He went into Town with his dog in the tray of the ute standing guard. Word got out and the find hit the News Papers. He processed the Quartz and bought four two bedrooms units in Perth with the proceeds. He did well with units but they are about 50 years old now but if he kept the gold he might of been better off, because his wife got the units. 

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Historically, the Australian Dollar reached an all time high of 1.49 $US in December of 1973. Australian Dollar - data, forecasts, historical chart - was last updated on December 4 of 2025.

Australia Exchange Rate against USD averaged 1.527 (USD/AUD) in Oct 2025, compared with 1.516 USD/AUD in the previous month. Australia Exchange Rate against USD data is updated monthly, available from Jan 1957 to Oct 2025. The data reached an all-time high of 1.994 in Apr 2001 and a record low of 0.673 in Mar 1974.

In the two decades that followed, its highest value relative to the US dollar was $0.881 $US in December 1988. The lowest ever value of the dollar after it was floated was 47.75 US cents in April 2001. It returned to above 96 US cents in June 2008, and reached 98.49 later that year.

If you swapped 1 $US for 87.5¢ in Jan 1979 but now you get 1.48.5¢ so with out any gold price rise the gain is 70% for Australian in US dollars.

 

[Aureous]

This is the 'Lucky Strike' specimen, found with an Equinox 800 on private property at Linton near Ballarat. It broke in 2 pieces getting it out of the ground.  Old news, few years ago now...

[Chet]

My big find, 4.8 pound quartz rock with a little gold scattered in it. Found in a California hydraulic pit with a GPX 5000 many years ago. Check with a pinpointer shows only the one lump which is visible. A few small specs are visible on top and bottom. Specific gravity test doesn’t show anything because it must be more than 99 percent quartz.   

[geof_junk]

This was my first Specimen that I got of my 3rd patch it yield 7½ Oz and I did a "Gerry"  show but have no photos in the mouth of it, when I got it in the early 1980s