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Once upon a time, thousands of gold miners left their homes and rushed to foreign lands, hoping to get rich. Since the middle of the XNUMXth century, the so-called “gold rushes” began, which continue to this day. Some of them have gone down in history.
Those who were lucky were then able to make their fortune. Sometimes it was possible to find nuggets of significant weight, by selling which one could provide oneself for life. Interestingly, their true value was not always discovered.
So, young Conrad Reid found in the stream, as he believed, a stone weighing almost 8 kg, which he used as a prop for the door, but meanwhile, it was a huge piece of gold. Amazing event.
But more often than not, the largest gold nuggets in the world have their own interesting history and do not go unnoticed.
10 Large perforated, about 3 kg
This openwork piece of gold was found in the Urals about three hundred years ago. Received the title “big perforated» due to its shape, is one of the very first nuggets that were discovered in our country.
9. Rabbit ears 3,344 kg
Its name “Bunny ears“Received because of its shape, similar to the head of this animal. It was found by Pyotr Simonov in 1935, next to the Leninsky mine.
Peter decided to dig a hole right in the middle of the road, in front of the door of the workshop, he tried to break through the frozen layer of earth. Two girls, seeing how he was suffering, decided to help him, but then ran away on their own business.
When the workers left the workshop, they saw Simonov, who was sitting among the clods of earth, in them lay a huge nugget of an unusual shape. He appeared among the crystals of rock crystal and calcite, reached an extraordinary size.
Experts found out that this is high gold, 932 samples. The dimensions of the “ears” are 6 and 7 cm, their thickness is about 2 cm.
8. Camel, 9 kg
It was found in Kolyma back in 1947. It weighs over 9kg (9kg 288g). It got its name due to its shape, which really resembles the body and head of a one-humped camel.
It has a conchoidal surface, it itself is strongly rounded, from which the experts concluded that “Camel”was in the riverbed for a long time, river pebbles wrapped around it from all sides, giving it such an unusual shape.
7. Dolphin, 10,4 kg
Like the previous nuggets,Dolphin» received such a name, because. shaped like this animal. He weighs over 10 kg. Such a huge piece of gold was discovered in the Bodaibo deposit, off the banks of the great Lena River, back in 1958.
6. Horse head, 13,777 kg
This long piece of gold, which weighs almost 14 kg, was named “horse head”, because similar in shape to the head of this animal. It is 37 cm long and 15 cm wide. It was found in 1936 in the Urals.
5. Hand of fate, 27,2 kg
It was found in Australia in 1980. There is a story online by Ellie Hiller, who, along with her family, made this significant find. She, her husband Kevin and 4 children decided to take a bus trip around Australia. They sold everything they had, quit their jobs, and hit the road, intending to stay in one place for no longer than 3 months.
In September 1980, they took metal detectors and went looking for gold, as they did every day. And Kevin was able to find the nugget. Together with Ellie, they tried to dig it out in the ground, but it only increased in size. It took a long time to dig, somehow they loaded 27 kg of gold into the car.
They decided to name it “Hand of Destiny”, because it looks like a blessing hand. Its other name ishand of faith“. It was found in the state of Victoria, near the city of Kingauer. He is one of the champions, i.e. the largest nugget of this precious metal found with a metal detector. It was purchased by an American casino and is now on display in its lobby in downtown Las Vegas.
4. Oliver Martin 36 kg
One of the largest gold nuggets was found in the USA, in the state of California. It was named after the one who found it – Oliver Martin. This happened in 1854. Oliver at that time was a little richer than an ordinary tramp.
He, along with his friend, had a strong drink and walked out of the bar, heading to the camp. But an incredibly heavy downpour began, the partners were in the rain, at the foot of the mountain. The rain caused flooding in the area.
The water that poured from the cliff washed the friends right into the stream. Martin almost drowned, but he managed to grab the branches of a tree and hung like that until the morning. Then the water finally went away.
But his friend, John Fowler, could not survive this flood. Oliver decided to dig a grave for him by the rock. Having dug a hole, he suddenly stumbled upon a huge nugget, it was not inferior in size to a bull’s head.
The happy owner of a huge piece of gold became rich, the nugget was sold for $22, and then it was shown in different US cities. Martin himself got rich.
3. Big triangle, 36 kg
Its weight is 2 pounds, 7 pounds and 92 spools, if translated into our measure of weights – 36,2 kg. It was found on October 26, 1842 by the craftsman Nikifor Syutkin.
The placer in this place has already been worked out, only the place under the factory remains. It was dismantled, and during the work Syutkin came across a nugget, which was called “big triangle“. Now it is kept in the Russian Diamond Fund.
The fate of Nikifor himself was not very successful. Syutkin had previously received 3 kopecks a day. For the found nugget, he was supposed to be 15 kopecks from the spool. The “Big Triangle” was valued at 28 rubles, of which Nikifor was to receive 146 rubles 1 kopecks, a huge amount for such a person.
The head of the Ural mining assurances, fearing that he would immediately squander everything, gave him 66 rubles and 60 kopecks, and put the rest in the bank at interest. Nikifor immediately arranged a revelry with his comrades. Then he began to beg for money by all means. The authorities got tired of brushing him off and gave him all the money.
Syutkin continued to drink, his binge lasted almost his entire life, interrupted only at those moments when he was put in a “cold” place on bread and water or flogged in a mine office. He died in poverty, forgotten and despised by everyone.
2. Desired Stranger, 70,9 kg
This nugget was found in 1869 in Australia, Victoria, in the city of Moliagul, 200 km from Melbourne. The lucky ones were prospectors John Deason and Richard Oates.
Once Dyson was loosening the ground when he suddenly found something very hard. As a person associated with gold, his first thought was that it was a nugget. But the reality surpassed all his expectations. Dyson dug up such a huge block of gold that he could not move it. Moreover, he could not immediately find out the weight of the find, because. it was difficult to find a scale where he could be weighed.
Unfortunately, this huge nugget, which was called “A welcome stranger‘ has not been preserved. It was crushed into pieces, breaking off one piece after another for 5 hours. Not even a photograph of this unique nugget remains. Where it was found, they put a pole on which you can read the names of 2 prospectors, they were able to earn 9 pounds.
1. Holterman stove, 83,3 kg
In Australia, not far from Sydney, at the Hill End mine in 1872, a record-breaking huge nugget was found. It was a gigantic block weighing 280 kg, but it could not be called pure gold.
The find was a quartz slab, 144 cm long, 66 cm wide, and only 10 cm thick. Gold was smelted from it. This huge nugget was named after the man who was able to find it – Bernard Holtermann. Before that, he had been searching for gold for several years, until he became famous thanks to his find.
«Holtermann braid” also did not survive to our times, was crushed and melted down, but remained her photograph, because. Bernard loved to take pictures.