No comments yet? Here's one. Imagine this: it's 1869 and you're stumbling around in an area not so far from where this new nugget was found and suddenly, chipping away with a shovel, you hit something hard just under the surface. It turns out to be the Welcome Stranger, and how welcome it was!
Found only 3 cm (1.2 in) below the surface, near a root of a tree on a slope leading to what was then known as Bulldog Gully, its gross weight was 3,523.5 troy ounces (109.59 kg), the trimmed weight was 2,520 troy ounces (78 kg), and net it weighed 2,315.5 troy ounces (72.02 kg) See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welcome_Stranger for the fuller story. Worth around $US3.75 million in today's gold prices. Makes this latest find look like small fry. What I'd like to learn is how does such a nugget come to be? How does gold come to be, for that matter? Ah, geology, cosmology, chemistry, physics.... It's all a big can of knowledge worms. And the world of coincidence travels into computerland here: when I clicked on the "Preview" button, the "word" I was to retype to prove I am not a robot was? Torallat. Not too far from Ballarat, eh?
Thanks for your comment, Anonymous, whoever and wherever you are. I have several times seen the reproduction of The Welcome Stranger in the state museum here in Melbourne and it is indeed a big rock. The existence of gold does indeed raise interesting questions. And that coincidence of Torallat and Ballarat; that's just too much!
Worth around $US3.75 million in today's gold prices. Makes this latest find look like small fry. What I'd like to learn is how does such a nugget come to be? How does gold come to be, for that matter? Ah, geology, cosmology .. Could this find be made by a Minelab Metal Detector
No comments yet? Here's one. Imagine this: it's 1869 and you're stumbling around in an area not so far from where this new nugget was found and suddenly, chipping away with a shovel, you hit something hard just under the surface. It turns out to be the Welcome Stranger, and how welcome it was!
ReplyDeleteFound only 3 cm (1.2 in) below the surface, near a root of a tree on a slope leading to what was then known as Bulldog Gully, its gross weight was 3,523.5 troy ounces (109.59 kg), the trimmed weight was 2,520 troy ounces (78 kg), and net it weighed 2,315.5 troy ounces (72.02 kg) See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welcome_Stranger for the fuller story. Worth around $US3.75 million in today's gold prices. Makes this latest find look like small fry. What I'd like to learn is how does such a nugget come to be? How does gold come to be, for that matter? Ah, geology, cosmology, chemistry, physics.... It's all a big can of knowledge worms. And the world of coincidence travels into computerland here: when I clicked on the "Preview" button, the "word" I was to retype to prove I am not a robot was? Torallat. Not too far from Ballarat, eh?
Holy cow! "Nugget" seems like an inadequate word to describe it.
DeleteThanks for your comment, Anonymous, whoever and wherever you are. I have several times seen the reproduction of The Welcome Stranger in the state museum here in Melbourne and it is indeed a big rock. The existence of gold does indeed raise interesting questions. And that coincidence of Torallat and Ballarat; that's just too much!
DeleteWorth around $US3.75 million in today's gold prices. Makes this latest find look like small fry. What I'd like to learn is how does such a nugget come to be? How does gold come to be, for that matter? Ah, geology, cosmology ..
ReplyDeleteCould this find be made by a Minelab Metal Detector