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The Washington Gold Nugget -
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CoinMiner1
Posts: 166 ✭
Supposedly the largest one from US Sierra Nevada Mountains was actually dug up in Australia a generation ago!
Some posted pictures of it when it was displayed at the ANA show this past march...
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/07/05/BA9L1K6SN9.DTL
Some posted pictures of it when it was displayed at the ANA show this past march...
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/07/05/BA9L1K6SN9.DTL
www.CoinMine.com
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All I can say is wow.
The name is LEE!
Quick summary using linked SF Chronicle article and articles linked below:
1987: "Orange Roughie" is found by Murray Cox and Reg Wilson in Rokewood, Victoria, Australia near Ballarat, north of Melbourne. The pair is featured in a 1987 Melbourne Sun newspaper article with photographs. A photo of the nugget is still displayed in the Rokewood Hotel.
1989: Sold for $50,000 by Reg Wilson to a gold dealer / assayer named "Rattlesnake John" in Quartzite, Ariz, who often takes nuggets from Cox on consignment. Later, John has a photo of the nugget placed on his business cards.
March or April 2010: Jim Sanders, aka Jim Saunders Grill or James S. Grill, claims he found the nugget on 180 acres his family owns (and wants to sell) in historic 49er Gold Rush town of Washington (Nevada County) along the South Fork of the Yuba River. The unmined area is known as the "blue lead" or "bottommost layer of the Tertiary gold channels in California." Jim insists on not releasing his own name but is now mentioned in nearly every article published.
2010 or 2011: Jim takes the nugget to Fred Holabird who certifies it as authentic, "proof positive" CA gold and describes it as a one-in-a-trillion find.
January to March 2011: "Washington Nugget" is put on public display at FUN, Long Beach and ANA Money Show.
March 16, 2011: Sold for $460,000 at a Sacramento Convention Center auction by Don Kagin and Fred Holabird for Jim Sanders. The nugget is purchased by Spectrum Group International in Irvine, CA for a client. The auction lot description by Fred said the nugget was considered possibly “the sole remaining authenticated large gold nugget of 100 troy ounce caliber” and “While 100 [ounce] nuggets are known from Australia and Mexico, I couldn’t think of a single specimen still in existence from California [...] Or at least any that I had seen or known of in museums, including the Smithsonian and the Mariposa Gold Museum."
2011: Jim Sanders attempts to sell land now falsely associated with the Washington Nugget. A website, www.lostscotchmanmine.com, is also set up "seeking investors to help develop a commercial mining operation called the Lost Scotchman Mine on the 180-acre property, suggesting the giant nugget was just the 'tip of the iceberg.'" and that if you "Act now and just like the 49ers of 160 years ago, you can experience the wealth and excitement of the Gold Rush."
2011: Murray Cox discovers the fraud in a mining trade magazine and contacts News10 and other CA news agencies. Don and Fred also get notified.
2011: Fred says "We're going to pursue this full tilt using the best science available." He offers to pay for testing (approx. $15,000) and suggests it be conducted by “gold experts Dr. Robert Cook, retired head of the geology department of Auburn University in Alabama, and Dr. John Watling, a forensic and chemical analyst at the University of Western Australia in Perth, do the scientific testing needed to determine the true origin of the nugget.”
2011: All parties agree the "Washington Nugget" is really the "Orange Roughie" and the $460k buyer was made whole. Don is quoted as saying “Based on documentation we've seen, the nugget came from Australia.” Fred says, “I got taken as bad as anyone.”
Here's the SF Chronicle auction article from March.
<< <i>The nugget was dug up with a pick last March by a man strolling his land near the historic Sierra Gold Rush town of Washington (Nevada County). He promptly trotted it over to Reno to show it to mining geologist Fred Holabird, who says he promptly fell on the floor in astonishment. >>
It was also reported to The Union Newspaper:
<< <i>"I've been doing gold nugget jewelry for over 30 years and I don't know as I've heard of a nugget that size being found in this area in all the time I've been involved," [Local jeweler Terry] Mohr said. >>
It got broad coverage in local and national radio, television and print media, including the Associated Press:
<< <i>Fred Holabird, a mining geologist whose Reno-based company is one of the country's largest sellers of Western Americana and is handling its sale, thinks it's the largest California gold nugget left in existence.
Virtually all of California's gold fields have been thoroughly combed by miners, he said, and other monster nuggets from the Golden State have been melted into ingots for money.
While bigger nuggets have surfaced in Australia in recent decades, no similar-sized placer nuggets from California have turned up in museums, he added.
The Smithsonian Institution's largest placer nugget from California weighs about 80 ounces.
"The chances of finding something like this anymore are beyond remote. It could be one in a trillion," Holabird said. >>
1 in a trillion is pretty low odds. If it sounds too good to be true, some due diligence wouldn't be a bad thing.
Other referenced articles:
June 7, 2011: Doubts engulf origin of ‘Washington Nugget’
June 8, 2011: Gold Rush Mystery: War Over $460,000 Gold Nugget's Origin
June 2011: 98oz "Washington Nugget" auctioned in March is a HOAX!
Famous California nugget came from Australia
June 17, 2011: Coin World: Actual origin of Washington nugget might be Australia
July 7, 2011: Whopper nugget turns out to be a whopper of a hoax
The PhD in Numismatics was engaged in a conspiracy to defraud potential and the actual buyer.
<< <i>Am I understanding your time chronology correctly?
The PhD in Numismatics was engaged in a conspiracy to defraud potential and the actual buyer. >>
I don't think the articles or I suggested anyone was involved in fraud except for the person who claimed to have found it on his property in CA using a metal detector in what now looks like a "salting the mine" scheme. However, the PhD in Numismatics did say that there are confidentiality agreements and nobody is going to press fraud charges so I'm not sure if the full story will ever come out.
It includes links to a couple of videos including this CoinWeek video from Long Beach. From there, you can find this other post-auction CoinWeek video.
The thread also has numerous photos including this photo hanging in the Rokewood Pub.
This article has a News10 video revealing the hoax and a screenshot of the lostscotchmanmine.com website which says it was covered on all the major networks: Fox, ABC, CBS and NBC.
The Union paper featured the nugget on their front page. Here's the photo they received from Jim Saunders Grill and featured on the front page of their paper from their website.
Additionally, it was on the cover of the June 2010 issue of ICMJ's Prospecting and Mining Journal.
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linky
I'm finding it hard to resist digging for more info on the Great Washington Nugget Hoax as it's called by a local CA resident. I think it's that (a) there's information to be found and (b) my new iPad makes that info too easy to find.
I found this Mindat.org thread very interesting, especially the posts by Lyla J. Tracy who's been on those boards since 2006, lives a few miles away from Jim Grill (shares the same post office) and is aware of his history, has employed gold miners in the past, has had direct communications with Fred Holabird on the subject, and is a long time friend of the auctioneer (Fred?). Here are some of the more interesting parts of the thread from Lyla:
<< <i>This story hits close to home, as the location of where this nugget was supposedly found is but a few miles from my house, if that. I know the property, and the property owner and from the very beginning felt a deep suspicion as to the validity of the story. [...] I contacted the auctioneer (friend) and was nicely rebuffed and lightly scolded for my suspicions. I pointed out that this property owner had been trying to sell this land for ages, had been a gold collector for years and may have hit upon a world class scheme to sell his nugget for a $ bundle and his property for an inflated price ( $1.5 million). Needles to say, our conversation became rather strained and I fear I may have lost a long time friend. [...]
Here is another article on the Washington nugget. Seems like the larger newspapers are now starting to pickup the story. Here on the home front most of the reporters have left town and there is a feeling of vendication by many of the locals who had strongly doubted the story from the beginning [...]
I have felt all along that the buyer/seller were very close, maybe even the same person. There was supposed to be three active bidders, however who really knows with phone bids? I also suspect that the nugget was just used as a lure to promote the owner's property. [...]
As I recall, Fred Holabird of the Holabird-Kagin Americana (Auction House) mentioned in one article about seeking the help of two gold experts to help him sort out this situation. What's with that? You don't need experts to recognize the same nugget in two different pictures. I believe that is just damage control, and quite frankly, he had to come up with something that sounded scientific. And Fred, if you are reading this, you owe me an apology! [...]
I just learned this morning that Mr. Grill was seen at our postoffice yesterday [June 16, 2011]. [...]
I am wondering now if Fred Holabird ever got paid the 60 k in auction fees? If the nugget stayed with Mr. Grill and no money changed hands, where would that leave Fred? [...]
When I asked Fred if he had tested the nugget, he grew a bit impatient with me, not welcoming any questions. I believe Fred was really positive of the origin of the nugget, due in large part to the skilled performance of the so called "finder". Fred is a history buff and I think got caught up in the historical scenario of this being the last of the big California Gold Nuggets. I still think he is an honorable guy and runs an honorable business. >>
Lyla also posted on this Gold Detecting and Prospecting Forum thread where she wrote the she suggested the nugget might really be from OZ to Fred:
<< <i>I called Fred Holabird, the auctioneer, and expressed my concerns regarding the validity of the story. I even suggested to him that the nugget may actually have come from Australia. >>
Many members on this forum that now it cannot fit in my signature. Please ask for entire list.
<< <i>Anyone have an update on this? It seems like news of this nugget and the Scotchman Mine just stopped after it was confirmed that this was the Australian Orange Roughie. I couldn't find any articles from 2012 or beyond. >>
Sounds like the "confidentiality agreements" are precluding any real information from coming out. I do know there was huge nugget found in Alaska not too many years ago that had difficulty selling and for a time was displayed in a museum where I saw it. I am curious if it is still intact or ended up getting broken into smaller sellable pieces. In Googling to locate it I believe it was what has been identified as the "Centennial Nugget" based on its discovery 100 years after the Klondike Gold Rush. Per the linked article from 2011 it weighed 20 pounds and 3.8 ounces and was dug up by the blade of a Caterpillr near Ruby Alaska in 1998. The main thing I remember about it was that no one wanted to pay the premium over spot that the sellers were demanding. The article confirms what I recalled. (It only remained at the museum for a brief period of time and never learned what eventually happened to it.)
20 plus pound Alaska Gold Nugget
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CoinsAreFun Toned Silver Eagle Proof Album
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Gallery Mint Museum, Ron Landis& Joe Rust, The beginnings of the Golden Dollar
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More CoinsAreFun Pictorials NGC
Over the last 3-4 years the rivers have filled up with a lot more gold mining equipment. I can see how it could be lucrative to push a story like this if you owned the land it was "found on".
<< <i>
<< <i>Anyone have an update on this? It seems like news of this nugget and the Scotchman Mine just stopped after it was confirmed that this was the Australian Orange Roughie. I couldn't find any articles from 2012 or beyond. >>
Sounds like the "confidentiality agreements" are precluding any real information from coming out. I do know there was huge nugget found in Alaska not too many years ago that had difficulty selling and for a time was displayed in a museum where I saw it. I am curious if it is still intact or ended up getting broken into smaller sellable pieces. In Googling to locate it I believe it was what has been identified as the "Centennial Nugget" based on its discovery 100 years after the Klondike Gold Rush. Per the linked article from 2011 it weighed 20 pounds and 3.8 ounces and was dug up by the blade of a Caterpillr near Ruby Alaska in 1998. The main thing I remember about it was that no one wanted to pay the premium over spot that the sellers were demanding. The article confirms what I recalled. (It only remained at the museum for a brief period of time and never learned what eventually happened to it.)
20 plus pound Alaska Gold Nugget >>
On further reflection, maybe those promoters ought to take a look at securing some land in Ruby, Alaska to put up for sale.