For anyone interestd in buying gold nuggets - the Palmer River gold is the purest in Australia! Most gold nuggets are 92% pure including most gold found near Kalgoorlie. Some regions have gold nuggets only 60% though so you have to be careful and ask where the gold comes from. . For example - gold from Georgetown in Queensland is of lower percentage gold. Smaller nuggets tend to be purer than larger nuggets (and more water worn gold) as silver tends to be removed more easily from smaller nuggets. The more 'prickly 'the gold ie the closer the nugget has been found to the reef it originated from, the lower the gold content with reef gold usually around 85%. Supergene gold (secondary gold deposited out of solutions rather the reef gold) is high purity too. I used to buy gold nuggets for jewellery making and you can usually tell by the colour what the purity is. Also most prospectors with nice looking nuggets suitable for jewellery will ask spot + 10-20%. You can get ordinary gold nuggets at spot price for cash though from many prospectors, in fact, dont even think of trying to buy nuggets off a prospector with a cheque. There used to be dealers from America coming over to WA on a regular basis to buy up nuggets but I don't know if they are still doing it now the gold price is so high. (or I should say the dollar is so low!). I can actually see many large gold nuggets being melted down soon when the gold price goes higher which is a pity as large gold nuggets will become rarer. ps. small nuggets less than a gram seem to sell at a good price on Ebay if you want to buy and trade natural gold nuggets!
If you do your homework you will always find sovereigns selling for a few percent above spot. Krugerrands generally work out cheaper as they are frequently sold 2% or less above spot. Problem you face though is do you buy now or wait ? Gold is hitting its highest prices ever right now so do you wait for a correction or is gold going to the moon ??? Some bullion dealers buying scrap gold often get coins sent to them and they have little interest in coins since they just melt everything. Find a decent dealer and ask if they would sell their coins before scrapping. You might be surprised at what you get - I did this once and got proofs and UNC sovereigns.
