Gold nugget worth £80,000 found at the bottom of a river!

A fantastic discovery has been made in the waters of a Scottish river! The loot was the largest nugget of gold ever found within the UK. Found in May 2019, the nugget weighs a whopping 121.3 and was valued at £80,000!

The lucky gold prospector made his discovery using the traditional method of lying face down in the river with his head submerged in the water and wearing a diving suit and snoorklining equipment – known as sniping.

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Although the record-breaking nugget was excavated in two pieces, they both constitute perfectly matching elements of a single whole. Hence the name of the find – The Reunion. The find also has a hole, which experts say could have been punched by a rock, glacier, or even an agricultural tool in the Iron Age.

The discoverer turned with his find to gold nugget expert Lee Palmer, author of “Gold Occurrences in the UK: A Gold Prospector’s Guide’.

“It is currently the largest nugget found in the UK. It is shaped like a donat and has no impurities in it. It is simply a nugget of pure gold, to my eye about 22 carats. It is a truly remarkable discovery.”

Lee Palmer hopes the nugget will be purchased by the National Museum of Scotland or the Natural History Museum, but by law it may also have to be transferred to the Crown Estate.

Interestingly, the previous record holder was a nugget weighing 85.7g, which was valued at £50,000, about we wrote in november last year. This discovery was also made in a Scottish river and, as in the case described today, the finder has chosen to remain completely anonymous, both in terms of his details and where the gold was found.

Source: metro.co.uk