Largest Gold Nugget Found in Recent California History Worth $350,000

The largest chunk of gold found in the last few decades has been allegedly discovered in Butte, California. The 6.07-pound nugget is being sold by coin dealer, Don Kagin, and it’ll have its debut showing on Thursday at the San Francisco Fall Antiques Show at Fort Mason, California. Kagin and his staff are assessing the “Butte Nugget” to be worth between $350,000 and $400,000. Kagin is also the dealer who has been selling off the Saddle Ridge gold coin stash put up for sale earlier this year.

The owner of the precious metal is not disclosing his name or the exact location of the find for reasonable safety reasons, and to keep others from prospecting in the area where the nugget was found. According to a friend, the finder was scouring for gold with a metal detector. He found a few small nuggets, and then the detector’s signal starting whirring loudly. He initially thought it might have been a pipe or a horseshoe, and he worried that it was barricading other nuggets, so he dug to find out. About a foot down into the earth, he encountered the Butte.

Hopefully this sale will efface Kagin’s past mistake of being duped by “the Orange Roughie” in 2011. Kagin was tricked to believe that a 8.2-pound “chunk of yellow” was actually a historic Gold Rush find. Kagin bought back the nugget from the individual he sold it to, and was forced to sell it for much less. Kagin’s senior numerist, David McCarthy, certainly did his research before purchasing the nugget. He visited the digging site, and cross-checked photos of the gold piece as it was being dug up. “I can’t say the actual location of where this nugget was found, though I had to be blindfolded for the ride out to the location, so I couldn’t say exactly even if I wanted to. I’m convinced this man found what he said he found.” Said McCarthy.

The Butte Nugget is the second biggest discovered gold nugget in California that remains in nugget form. The first being 100-troy ounce “Mojave Nugget,” which was discovered in 1977 Ty Paulsen in Kern County. It can now been seen in the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.

“This one’s for real,” Reported Kagin. “Obviously we don’t want to get hoodwinked again, so we have checked pretty thoroughly into it.”

In the mid-1800’s, dozens of hefty gold nuggets were discovered all over the Sierra during the California gold rush, yet most were sold off and melted down, so few of the large nuggets remain today. This makes large nuggets like the Butte Nugget more valuable than their actual gold content to collectors.