What is thought to be the largest golden nugget ever recorded was 
sold in San Francisco at the gold-rushed themed San Francisco Fall Antiques Show that runs from October 23rd to October 26th this year. The nugget was discovered in Northern California by someone who wishes to remain anonymous, as many people who rapidly come into extreme wealth do for their own safety. The exact location the nugget was found will not be disclosed but the discovery happened in the Butte County area of the Sierra Nevada mountains.
The Butte nugget was found using a metal detector. Weighing in at 6.07 pounds, the nugget is 80 to 90 percent pure gold. The value of the actual gold in the nugget is reported to be worth about 125,000 dollars, but because a gold nugget that size is so uncommon, the value increased immensely. The gigantic hunk of gold was found in July, 2014 on public land in the area of Northern California in the Sierra Nevada which was known to be an area dense with nuggets in the 1849 Gold Rush. The largest piece of gold found in these mountains on record is 54 pounds. Normally, when these extremely large nuggets are found they are melted down and sold in chunks which makes this solid nugget even more unique. The Butte nugget went up for sale at 400,000 dollars and though its exact selling price is unknown, it is believed that it sold for close to the asking price. The party who purchased the nugget wished to remain anonymous for safety reasons, but it is said to be a well-known Bay area collector whose particular interest is in historical artifacts.
Although the buyer, seller, and final price of this deal will remain anonymous, the middle-man is a prominent Marin County coin dealer named Don Kagin, the president of Kagin’s, Inc. in Tiburon, California. Kagin’s is the oldest numismatic firm in the country. Several different interested parties approached Kagin about purchasing the gold nugget but ultimately the buyer was chosen because they had the best bid and an early offer. Mr. Kagin is also the person known for brokering the recent sale of one of the biggest numismatic discoveries in decades, the 10 million dollars in gold coins that were recently found in a Sierra Nevada couple’s back yard called the Saddle Ridge Hoard. The couple stumbled upon a rusty can sticking out of the ground while walking their dog and ended up unearthing eight cans full of 1,427 19th century U.S. gold coins. It was discovered that these were minted in San Francisco, and about a third of the coins were still in perfect condition. The coins were sold online and to collectors of fine and rare coins.
Discoveries of gold are heard around the world and cause a lot of excitement. The Saddle Ridge hoard represents the fascinating mysteries of numismatics. When the discovery of the coins first became public there were many rumors about the possible history of the coins. Some thought they might be the coins that were never found from a 1901 robbery of the San Francisco Mint, in which case the government might have owned some of them. This theory was ruled out after research. One speculation of where the Saddle Ridge coins came from is that they belonged to a miner who was saving his earnings in a secret place. The history of the Wild West and the California Gold Rush is still coming to light and gold is a very important artifact whether in the form of nugget, coin, or otherwise, not only for its monetary value but also the historical value that comes with finding buried treasure.
