NATIVE GOLD SPECIMEN from CALIFORNIA 

Ruler is 1/4" wide (6 mm). U.S. 10 cent coin is 17 mm in diameter.
 
Specimen weight: 57.2 Grains (Troy) - 3.7 Gram (metric)
 
Size: 17.1X13X9.2 mm 

  Here's a California specimen brimming with precious metal. Source is the Sierra Nevada Mtns. By volume, it runs about fifty-fifty gold to quartz. By weight, it's probably more like 2/3 gold, 1/3 gangue. The matrix shows some rusty, dark ironcap as well. I guarantee the included gold is the Real McCoy. I didn't clue it on or paint it on. It's not 'salted' and it's not mica, pyrite, glistening rock (usually the result of reflected light). It was nature, not a man's hand that put it there. She gives off a hot signal on any decent VLF machine.

For many years, placer-mining was my trade. When not mining, I was making gold nugget jewelry with karat gold wire and gold solder. I know a little something on the subject of gold. The dream was to find a desert arroyo full of rocks like this. Occasionally, I dug nuggets with some bull quartz attached, but that bonanza wash always managed to elude me. On three separate occasions, I located good washes only to have them ripped off by other diggers. In gold country, a person can stumble on some rich ravine and think he has it all to himself; but once you find it, don't tell anybody. Even being discrete, others will notice when you spend too long at one spot, so be prepared to guard your honey hole against predatory high-graders. They're like vultures, a bird not prone to killing it's own food, but always looking for an easy meal.
 
 

U.S. SHIPPING - $12.00 (via Priority Box - includes USPS tracking to all U.S. destinations)
 
INTERNATIONAL CUSTOMERS S&H
$50.00
 
 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 California, U.S.A. 
 
  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
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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
.

At Gold of Eldorado, you find genuine, natural Gold quartz specimens or gold combined with other mineral matrices. All my specimens show visible gold (VG). That, to the true gold aficionado, can be worth more than raw bullion itself.
 
 
OPENING UP A HOLE

To most placer miners, overburden devoid of gold is all too familiar. When dredging, count on gravels highest in the sedimentary column to hold minimal gold. Be advised that's not always going to be the case. Many rich drainages hold outstanding flood gold deposits lying relatively close to the surface. More often than not, however, bedrock's where the gold is. If there's no flood gold where you're at, you've really no choice but to pump pennyless dirt until a pay layer down at lower depths is encountered. It’s surprising how quickly you will find yourself ‘tailings-bound’, so, as with large bucket-line dredges, tailings must be managed through timely repositioning of your dredge to allow for an even distribution of gravels behind you.
 
Boulders come in all sizes, shapes, compositions, and weights. They’re a royal pain in the wazoo and yet are promising indicators of rich ground ahead. Many big rocks are found concentrated in packs on bedrock. Find the right boulder pack and a paystreak could be near. Gravity, being less underwater, is significant. It means objects are not as heavy as they would be in earth’s atmosphere above the water table. A person working underwater doesn't realize how much stronger he's become. He'll find that rocks he could barely wiggle above water are suddenly movable. There will, however, always be limits to what an individual can move by brawn alone in or out of water. If necessary, smaller boulders, when not locked into an alluvial pack, can be nudged out of the way with a pry bar. Then there are the behemoth rocks. Using a come-a-long or powered winch, you'll generally need to dredge open space around these ‘hernia rocks’ so a choker cable can be secured. It’s impressive watching the modern ice-block-pincher claw devices at work. This tool appears to be an improvement over systems we used several years ago to clutch and remove boulders from dredge pits. Boulders high up in the overburden can be extremely dangerous obstructions. Yank em from your hole entirely if possible, but avoid piling them up unless you intend on redistributing them as soon as you’re finished dredging that site. It’s hard to make the case that rock piles left in a scenic waterway is somehow beneficial to the natural aesthetic character of a drainage. Whatever you do, stay on top of the boulders, not the other way around. If you're in good gold, it's advisable to keep your hole and working face clear of the largest rocks. You’ll feel safer and be safer. Sedimentary environments are rarely the same from one excavation site to another or from one drainage to the next. Welcome to the wonderful world of suction gold dredging!

 
LAW OF THE YUKON
"From my ruthless throne, 
I have ruled alone for a million years and a day;
Hugging my mighty treasure, 
waiting for man to come; 
Till he swept like a turbid torrent,  
and after him swept - the scum".

Words of Robert Service

Thanks for checking out our digs.

Gold of Eldorado  8-13-17