Home / Funny / Viral / Largest Gold Nugget Weighs The Same As An Adult Man

LARGEST GOLD NUGGET WEIGHS THE SAME AS AN ADULT MAN

Published: 2025-12-24 15:07:19 Last Updated: 2025-12-28 11:11:21

John Deason was a fisherman's son, and like his fellow tin miner and future business partner Richard Oates, he was not thought to be destined for greatness. However, both of their destinies were altered in 1851 by an Australian Gold Rush that began in New South Wales. In the hopes of being among the fortunate ones to find gold, hundreds of thousands of prospectors came to the nation. In 1853, Deason departed for Australia, where Oates followed him a year later.
The men struggled to make ends meet and relied on their little farms to finance their prospecting activity, even though they occasionally discovered tiny gold nuggets. The week before their big break, the men reportedly didn't have enough credit to even buy a bag of flour. Deason broke his pick on what would become known as the "Welcome Stranger" nugget after 15 years of hard work. The enormous piece of gold, which weighed a staggering 192 pounds 11.5 ounces, was discovered twisted in a tree's roots and covered in quartz. In order to expose the full nugget, the men chose to wait until nightfall. Afterwards, they organised a party for their friends to share their historic discovery.
The men transported their nugget to the neighbouring town of Dunolly with these very pals serving as bodyguards. They drew so many people to the London Chartered Bank that a constable had to be summoned. But the Welcome Stranger was too large to fit on the bank's scale. The nugget was split up for weighing before a picture could be taken. To get the bits small enough, it took five hours.
The nugget was compared to the largest known "Welcome Nugget," which was discovered in Ballarat, Victoria, more than ten years prior. The Welcome Stranger was made of purer gold and weighed six pounds more. Deason and Oates made almost £9,400 ($11,863) while giving away pieces of the nugget to their pals, who were excited to have a piece of history. Today, that would be worth just over £1.3 million, or around $1.64 million. The same quantity of gold, however, would now bring about £3 million ($3.8 million).

By the end of February 1869, the nugget had been melted and shipped to England, and Deason and Oates resumed farming as if nothing had changed. "We are delighted that the monster has fallen to the lot of such steady and industrious guys," the local newspaper, Dunolly & Bet Bet Shire Express, began, noting on a visit following their discovery how little the men had changed. The descendants of Deason and his family continue to live in what is now a peaceful rural area. Oates eventually went back to Australia after spending some time in his own country, where he found a woman and began a family.

Although it's unclear if the men's lives really improved as a result of their sudden income, the Welcome Stranger nevertheless captures the public's historical interest. Australia produced pure gold bullion coins in the 1980s, the greatest denomination of which featured the Welcome Stranger. Many copies have been produced even though there are no photos. The descendants of the prospectors came together in 2019 to commemorate the discovery's 150th anniversary.

Travellers seeking adventure can still travel to Victoria in search of gold. No gold nugget bigger than the "Welcome Stranger" has yet been discovered in Australia or anyplace else. At 134 pounds, the "Pepita Canaa" is the largest undamaged nugget still in existence. In 1983, Julio de Deus Filho discovered the item in Brazil. It is on exhibit at the Museu de Valores do Banco Central do Brasil. The "Hand of Faith," an Australian gold nugget that was found in 1980 by a metal detector, is appropriately on exhibit at the Gold Nugget Casino in Las Vegas. However, it is just slightly more than one-third of Oates and Deason's mammoth, weighing barely sixty pounds.

Article Tags: Viral Largest Gold Nugget