Steve Herschbach Posted January 17, 2014 Share Posted January 17, 2014 Something to ponder. As far as I know the largest nugget ever found with a metal detector was the Hand of Faith, at 875 ounces of relatively solid gold. With a Garrett ADS VLF in 1980. The nature of desert eluvial deposits is the gold is usually near surface and more depth does not always mean more gold. All the Minelab PI detectors made ever since have yet to find a larger nugget in Australia. And nothing in modern times has come even remotely close to masses of gold found over 100 years ago. There is the idea that another foot of depth will result in a renewed gold rush but I do believe in many places people would be surprised to find the cream of the crop gone forever. Scrapes obviously prove that is not true of all locations but in areas where bedrock is within a foot or two all the depth in the world is not going to put the gold back.Photo from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hand_of_Faith (Wikimedia Commons)Actual Hand of Faith nugget on display at Golden Nugget Las Vegas 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colluvium Posted January 17, 2014 Share Posted January 17, 2014 The 389 oz "Boot of Cortez" gold nugget is another example of very large eluvial gold. It was found in 1989 in the Mexican Sonora Desert at a depth of 8 inches with a Radio Shack metal detector. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RKC Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 As far as I know the largest nugget ever found with a metal detector was the Hand of Faith, at 875 ounces of relatively solid gold. With a Garrett Groundhog in 1980. G'day Steve, I'm hope I'm not nitpicking, but ... I do like to the get historical aspects (as well as terminology) as correct as its possibly to do on somewhere as anarchic as the Internet. Anyway ... I suspect that the Hand of Faith was found with a Garrett Deepseeker MD rather than a Groundhog. The reason I think it was is that a Deepseeker was that the second detector I ever bought and I bought it solely because the Hand of Faith was advertised by Garrett at that time (1980) as having been found with the Garrett Deepseeker. I have a small booklet buried somewhere written by Kevin Hillier about finding the Hand of Faith and it probably mentions in there the model of Garrett detector he found it with. I'll try and dig it out when I have a chance, to clarify. I wouldn't bother mentioning it on any other forum as all the juveniles would immediately chime in with their inane comments after imagining one of their Internet friends has been slighted in some way. I have great expectations of this forum as somewhere people can come for facts. Its off to a great start! A photo taken from a brochure from the early 1980s showing some lucky Victorian prospector with a nugget he found with ... a Deepseeker. Regards, Rob (RKC) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Herschbach Posted January 25, 2014 Author Share Posted January 25, 2014 Hi Rob, Thank you for the correction - I have made the change in the original post. I really do appreciate it as I do not want to be spreading incorrect information, no matter how small. Some things are opinions but other things are just facts or not. Now that you mention it I have nothing to back up my Groundhog statement beyond "I heard or read it somewhere". It does seem the facts regarding such a celebrated find have been kept rather vague. More details would be great. I am fortunate to have been able to see the Hand of Faith myself in Las Vegas. It is really something to see and anyone in Vegas should go out of their way to do so. Thank you for contributing! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colluvium Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 If you are a member of Doug's Australian electronic gold prospecting forum.com, type "Hand of Faith" into the search function and you will find three excellent photographs posted by "alluvium" in 2010 of the unveiling of the Hand of Faith monument together with the Hand of Faith nugget and the beat-up Garrett A.D.S. detector that found it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Herschbach Posted January 25, 2014 Author Share Posted January 25, 2014 The Story - https://sites.google.com/site/arizonapreppers/metals The Monument - http://seekers.metapath.org/Pictures/HandOfFaith_2010/slides/DSCF0372.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack and dog Posted January 28, 2014 Share Posted January 28, 2014 Thought you all would like this nugget well over a 1000 oz , found back in 1931 in western Australia , not with a detector . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goldenoldie Posted February 2, 2014 Share Posted February 2, 2014 On January 16, 2014 at 7:10 PM, Steve Herschbach said: There is the idea that another foot of depth will result in a renewed gold rush but I do believe in many places people would be surprised to find the cream of the crop gone forever. From what I have sectioned out above from Steve's opening post in this thread maybe those larger nuggets or the cream of the crop end up working their way to the surface as farmers say larger rocks do and more reappear after they had cleared the ground of rocks previously or maybe that is a myth? As I read somewhere small chaotic motions allow smaller things to sneak into momentary spaces created by larger things being raised, and so larger things gradually rise to the top. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith Southern Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 Have you ever watched this .. Hope they dont cut there toes off... Keith Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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