GOLD09-17
Gold
near Bendigo, Victoria, Australia
Small Cabinet, 9.0 x 6.5 x 1.5 cm
SOLD
I am not normally gung-ho about flattish nuggets from the more common Aussie locales, but THIS ONE really has style! It is a "pancake," flattish and so presenting a LOT of surface area for the price (surface/mass ratio, in other words). It looks like it was made by an artist twisting and swirling the molten gold as it fell, like thick, 3-dimensional brush-strokes on an underlaying gold infrastructure. I have seen a thousand Aussie nuggets (literally), and few strike me as this one does for elegance (maybe more obvious in person) and a really pleasing combination of forms on one piece. The specimen encases a few small quartz crystals, and has its natural patina: Too often these are cleaned to within an inch of their lives with hydrofluoric acid, and the quartz boiled off in the process. So, all I nall, one of the more stylish nuggets I have had for this size andprice range, with superb aesthetics and a LOT of display impact for the price. Masses in at 239 grams or about 7.7 troy ounces