If you’ve ever been to one of those places that teachers you how to pan for gold, or watched any of the popular series on television about searching for gold, you probably know that it’s usually really small nuggets.
Honestly, a lot of the time it’s just flecks.
Not this time, though – because the biggest nugget ever found is a downright giant.
It was found in Victoria, Australia, on February 5th, 1869. Two Cornish miners, John Deason and Richard Oats, stumbled on it while prospecting and dubbed it the “Welcome Stranger.”
It weighed 158.7 pounds and was 24 inches long.
The nugget was so large, in fact, that it didn’t fit on the scale at the London Chartered Bank, and had to be broken down and melted into bullion.
Today, it would be worth around 2 million dollars.
The largest gold nugget that still exists weighs 134 pounds, and was discovered in Filho, Brazil in 1983. Julio de Deus found it, and it is currently on display in the “Gold Room” of the Museu de Valores do Banco Central in Brasilia.
You might never find one this big, but people with metal detectors are still stumbling on some pretty sizable ones to this day.
So go ahead and try your luck!
If you think that’s impressive, check out this story about a “goldmine” of lithium that was found in the U.S. that could completely change the EV battery game.