A 100-ounce gold nugget is to fall under the hammer on March 15 when it is expected to fetch $225,000-$400,000.
Discovered last year in Sierra Nevada, the unpolished chunk of gold is the largest to be unearthed for decades and was found at the 19th century birthplace of hydraulic mining.
The man who came across what has been dubbed the ‘Washington Nugget’ was using a metal detector. No museum in the U.S. houses as large a nugget.
Fred Holabird, a mining geologist whose Reno-based company is handling its sale, said: “The chances of finding something like this anymore are beyond remote. It could be one in a trillion.”
It will be sold in Sacramento, California.