Buying Gold Nuggets?

[Gordon Gekko]

Does anybody have any experience buying raw gold nuggets? If so, where would be the best place to buy from and what are prices like?

[Gcubed]

Prices will vary according to size and purity. It's similar to buying jewelery, in a sense. KNOW what you are buying as placer gold purity varies.

[Professur]

I can't think of a form of gold I'd avoid more. You've no way to even guess at purity. I'd rank this as an even worse investment than 14K necklaces.

[CiscoKid]

While you can get close to guessing purity by purchasing an acid test kit, nuggets typically command much higher premiums than spot bullion. You would be better off buying the cheapest premium ounce of gold you can find and make lots of your own "nuggets". At least, that way, you would know the purity.

[917601]

Depending on if alluvial, placer,chyristaline,size....usually they go for 3-4x price of spot.I have picked out many on my SA .gov ventures,I will post pics when I can.Gold, in any natural form brings quite a premium in the natural form especially if large enough to mount.Not to many hard rock mining operations left.

[Gordon Gekko]

Thanks guys. This is an area that I have yet to venture into, and from the way it sounds, perhaps that is a good thing. I just thought it would be really neat to own a gold nugget, if anything else to have it as a conversation piece. However, it may be more of a headache than I originally thought.

[~BS]

there's tons of large gold nuggets for sale on ebay (real ones). They're probably 21-22k unless other rock or minerals are mixed in. And yes, they can sell at a hefty premium to spot.

Example?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Natural-Aust...item2eb8bc0bdc



42 grams for $3000

[Irons]

Great thread GG, great minds and all and all I have been thinking recently that it would be cool to have a vial of gold dust and nuggets.

I'm an Old West fan and visit old boomtowns whenever we travel out there. The Deadwood area is great as is most of Colorado.

My problem is if I start I would probably want a pinch from every gold mining area in the US, and that would open a whole new can of worms.

My quest to own every single gold Sovereign takes all of my focus at this time. ~

[Sampson]

As mentioned already nugget gold can vary quite a bit in purity and also in premium depending on things like the location it came from, overall size, character and shape, crystalline forms, quartz or other matrix attachment, etc. Once you get looking at nuggets much over a couple grams the shape, color, and character end up affecting the price much more than the actual purity. Anything from 1 gram up, that has nice color and shape to it will be desirable for jewelery making. Anything over about a half ounce and up will command more premium and often is used for pendants, ring mounts, or specimens. Crystalline gold or gold with nice quartz attached in sizes over a half ounce command an even higher premium and often are purchased as specimens which get put behind glass or mounted for viewing.

Most fine gold in pieces under 20 mesh or so, gets valued more on purity than the larger nuggets do and depending on the location it came from is usually between 70 to 95% pure. The smallest "flour" gold is usually more pure than flakes since it has been worn down so much that most of the impurities have been worn away and leave the gold behind. In the areas i mine it is fairly easy to guess at the expected purity based on color and hardness. The lighter colored soft gold is usually mixed with mainly silver, the lighter harder gold tends to be platinum mixtures, while the more red or orange colored gold tends to have a lot of copper in it. Also, some reddish gold can be colored by rusty coatings which usually indicates it came from an older bench deposit instead of freshly travelled in the current river. Also to watch out for is murcury coatings or mercury amalgum which can migrate and coat other "clean" gold when combined in the same vial. While you expect to pay a premium for large pieces as nugget value, the price of the finer flakes and flour gold depends a lot on the amount and purity being sold.

If you can find larger nuggets for anywhere near spot price they can be a good buy if you understand that you are paying a premium for the charcter of the nugget but when buying fine flakes or flour i wouldn't recommend paying more than about 60-70% of spot unless you can get the purity tested or have additional experience to base your judgements on. Even then, if you ever wanted to get fine flakes processed into pure bars or coins you must of coarse expect to pay refiner fees which can eat up another 10-20% of the value depending on the quantity to process. It can be nice to have a vial of flakes or a couple nice nuggets to play with but it isn't as easy or have the same confidence of buying reputable pure bullion.


Sampson

[917601]

Pics from my SA .gov days: The crystaline nuggets I had mounted by a jeweller in Caucausia (I should have left in its untouched-chipped off condition)and was offered $1200 for the larger 20 some gram nugget when gold was about $500 oz.Picture does no justice, it has quartz and when the sun hits it ,it lights up like nothing I have ever seen.

[Gordon Gekko]

Thank you all for the awesome information. It seems that eBay would be the best place to go in terms of inventory. However, I am not quite sure I trust eBay enough to buy nuggets.

I am looking for nuggets that are at least 1 ounce in gold content. I'll look around to see if there are any decent deals online. Sounds like it might be a bust, though.

[Irons]

Nuggets that big are waaaay into collectors territory, but hell thats really no different than numi coins.

Just get one with a pedigree and it should hold it's value just like a coin would, probably better.

[ME Co.]

I might would trade some little nuggets for bullion (little bullion). My gold is pictured in this thread. http://www.goldismoney2.com/showthre...-summer-mining Have been trying to trade the bigger pieces for more gold but the local gold club if full of social miners and nobody has enough gold to trade. If I wasn't such a conspiracy theorist I would have them inlaid into a ring. HH all, Mark

[Gordon Gekko]

I might would trade some little nuggets for bullion (little bullion). My gold is pictured in this thread. http://www.goldismoney2.com/showthre...-summer-mining Have been trying to trade the bigger pieces for more gold but the local gold club if full of social miners and nobody has enough gold to trade. If I wasn't such a conspiracy theorist I would have them inlaid into a ring. HH all, Mark

Do you have anything close to an ounce that you would be willing to part with?

[fasTTcar]

Nuggets that big are waaaay into collectors territory, but hell thats really no different than numi coins.

Just get one with a pedigree and it should hold it's value just like a coin would, probably better.

You are correct.

Anything over a couple grams gets you into premium territory.

I have to concur that any of the nuggets that I have bought have usually been in the 21-22k range.

[Gordon Gekko]

Here is a good looking nugget on eBay:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/37-8-GRAM-PL...item336f4acebc

[ME Co.]

Do you have anything close to an ounce that you would be willing to part with?

Nope, nothing over half gram. HH Mark