Ever since the gold rush era, California has been known as the Golden State. The west coast got a little more golden this week as the largest golden nugget in the known world went to auction in Sacramento Wednesday night.
Weighing in at 100 troy ounces, the gold-rush-era nugget sold for $400,000. Sellers must have been satisfied as the nugget was originally valued a full $200,000 less than the final sale price.
'There were 6 to 7 people bidding on it, most of them anonymously,' auction manager for Holabird-Kagin American Amy Baker told CNN Wednesday. 'It went to an anonymous (phone) bidder.'
On Wednesday, gold closed at $1,396.10 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange, making the nearly 7-pound nugget worth about $140,000, if it were melted down. But since the nugget, found last year in Nevada County, California, is believed to be the largest one left from the state's gold rush, it has special value. An estimated 500,000 people traveled to California between 1848 and 1864 in search of instant wealth.
"It's the last one we know left in existence," Baker said. "There have been larger ones over the years, but they have been melted down."
Source: CNN
Largest Gold Nugget In World Sold At Auction
Mar 18, 2011, 11:40