RICH GREEN GOLD QUARTZ SPECIMEN .87 GRAMS NATURAL GOLD AND QUARTZ

Description

NATIVE GOLD QUARTZ SPECIMEN
from the
MOTHER LODE
R
uler
is
1/4"
wide (6 mm). U.S. 10 cent coin is 17 mm in diameter.
S
pecimen weight:
13.5
G
rains (Troy) -
.87
G
ram
S
ize:
12.1X8.4X5.7
mm
C
heck out this rich, rusty rock found in the Sierra Nevada Mtns. It's not large, but wow! The seams and blebs of yellow gold oozing from every little crack in the pale greenish quartz aren't hard to see. Then, just to play tricks on the mind of an old prospector, it's covered by a chocolate-brown coating of frog-skin consistency, the result of oxidation occurring during the time it was formed. It sure makes one think twice about the drab nature of gold ores. I guarantee what looks like gold is gold and no one put it there. Test it to your heart's content and, if not satisfied, return it for a refund. The gold contained isn't pure 24K because virtually all gold found in nature is a metallic alloy of metals consisting of gold, silver, and copper. Judging by the yellow color of the precious metal contained here, the purity must be quite high.
At one time, placer-mining was my full time trade. I dreamed of some day locating a wash or creek full of specimen like this. Much to my dismay, it never happened. Moving ahead a couple of decades, I've been lucky enough to acquire lots of other gold quartz specimens through the minerals and mining community. These, I pass on to collectors. All my specimens show visible gold and are
authentic
gold quartz specimens.
U.S. SHIPPING .00
(includes USPS tracking to all U.S. destinations)
INTERNATIONAL CUSTOMERS S&H
.50
FAST REFUND OFFERED
(If, for any reason, you're not happy with this item). Contact me indicating you wish to return the item. As soon as it's received by me and everything's as it should be, you'll be issued a refund.
I poured through old mining dumps for years looking at orange-yellow-rusty rock through a loupe, but I never found a piece with visible gold.
Hydrothermal solutions carrying gold and silica crystallized into veins of gold quartz. This specimen comes from one of the many vein systems sourcing the immense placer deposits of the Sierra Nevada Mtns, the famed Mother Lode.
Weight Conversions:
15.43 GRAINS = 1 GRAM
31.103 GRAMS = 1 TROY OUNCE
24 GRAINS = 1 PENNYWEIGHT (DWT)
20 DWT = 1 TROY OUNCE
480 GRAINS = 1 TROY OUNCE
S&H
Discounted for combined shipments.
PAYMENTS
For U.S. buyers: We accept paypal
For intnl. customers: We accept paypal.
Pay securely with
www.paypal
.
Payment must be made within 7 days from close of  auction.  We ship as soon as funds clear. If you have questions, please ask them before bidding.
REFUNDS
We leave no stones un-turned insuring our customers get what they bargained for.
If you're not satisfied with this item, contact me. Then, if the problem can't be fixed, return product within 30 days in  'as purchased' condition for a full refund
QUARTZ MINING
Californians were fortunate in that most of their gold ores were what is known as "free-milling"; that is, after the rock had been crushed so as to free the gold, the latter would amalgamate readily with quicksilver. There were some exceptions. Mill men discovered that a small percentage of the gold was enclosed within various forms of metallic sulphides colloquially known as 'sulphurets.' Mercury could not come into contact with the gold so long as the ore was locked within the sulphides. To the men of that day it seemed that mere mechanical treatment of the ore was not sufficient to release the gold, and that therefore chemistry and metallurgy would have to be used before progress could be achieved. This was too complex a problem for the average California mill operator of the 1850s and since the loss through sulphurets was relatively small, he was able to thrust it out of his mind for the time being.
Excerpt from
MINING FRONTIERS OF THE FAR WEST 1848-1880
by Rodman Wilson Paul
GREEN GOLD
Placer platinum, a rare and even more exotic metal than gold, is found in North America; one of the more impressive deposits being British Columbia's Tulameen River and it's tributaries. Trinity County, California also recorded significant production of PGMs as does the northwest coast of Alaska especially the Good News Bay region. Historians delving into that period of North American platinum discovery (i.e. the 1800s) note that gold miners recovered heavy, silver-grey metal in their sluice boxes and were at a loss to identify this raw, metallic-looking mineral. Lacking the wealth of mineralogical knowledge available to today's prospecting community, they concluded it must be 'green gold'. Since it acted like gold, was heavy like gold, and looked a bit like gold, they figured it simply hadn't ripened enough and so threw it away.
Having mined platinum group metals (PGMs), some of which were difficult to identify, I've no trouble believing this story about British Columbia miners. One strange specimen nugget I found weighed 43 grain. Recovered from my Trinity River dredging operation, it was stashed away for 20 years without knowing exactly what it was. Eventually, I learned it was platinum (Pt) in a Dunite host. You just don't find platinum with host matrix and yet here I had accidentally found one two decades ago. A major problem with going back in to mine some of these deposits is that they don't really allow gold-mining in California any more.
Thanks for checking out our digs.
G
old of
E
ldorado
10-11-18