Gold on Quartz 
Oroville, Butte County, California
This extraordinary gold specimen is composed of tick robust rounded native gold incased in white quartz. The gold is rounded on its edges due to the constant flow of water slowly smoothening out the native gold and developing a very high lustrous surface. This takes hundreds of thousands of years to create a beautiful gold nugget specimen as this example. The gold specimen is very rich in gold and very heavy and is believed to be nearly 85% or higher is composed of native gold with the rest being milky white quartz. Gold from this locality is quite rare and not often available to mineral collectors. The gold is visible on all sides and every angle and the gold formed as thick veins within the quartz and the gold is connected as one solid piece under the quartz. This native gold nugget specimen is a prime example for its aesthetics and locality.
25 x 18 x 13 mm 
19.42 grams
#177