Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 October 1893 — The Largest Gold Nugget. [ARTICLE]

The Largest Gold Nugget.

The largest nugget of gold ever found was dug up at the mines of Ballarat, Australia. The proprietors of a “hole” had gone away to lunch, leaving a hired man digging with a pick-ax. Suddenly he stiuck something. The workman dug around it to tee what it wai and then he fainted. Presently the owners returned and, seeing the man lying in the hole, they thought he was dead. One of them jumped in, turned him over to see what was the matter with him, and then he fainted also. Both of them were dragged out, and immediately digging wai wildly begun for the nugget, which lay partly exposed. The mass was so great that at first they supposed that they had come upon a reef of pure gold. When they got it out it weighed 180 pounds and a few ounces. Its value was $41,000. Being sent to England, it was exhibited there for a time, and was finally molted and turned into sovereigns.