Price of gold in nugget form

For those who regularly detect and find gold ........... what is the general price you would get for gold nuggets less than 2 grams in size? Spot price minus the lost percentage gold of the nuggets (ie 91% gold nuggets + 91% of spot price)? I realise larger nuggets may fetch a better price from jewellers who like to keep nuggets in their natural state to make jewellry pieces from them. But what of smaller nuggets?

All advice welcome

 

Depends, a dealer will only pay for the pure gold content.
However no nugget is the same,all unique, so some will pay a premium to have that little baby sitting in the stack.
Find the right buyer,get the right price.
A self confessed purist, but love nuggets.

 

Thanks. Looking for any more opinions please. Am contemplating a large buy of small nuggets (under 2g) with the price being as posted. Not sure if this is a good deal or an ordinary deal, especially as its unrefined.

 

2 grams is still a respectable size with jewellery articles/fabs.
To give you an idea; if the nugget has a purity of .910 then this is equivalent to one standard half round 14k gold wedding band (ring) size N.
I have a few nuggets around that weight, and they can very easily have a soldered bale on them for instant jewellery gratification.

Anyway, with recent revelations surfacing (such as the article here) don't be surprised if nobody wants to sell-off nuggets for anything less than 100% spot (not 91% even with obvious less than 24k purity) irrelevant of size.

Nuggets are numismatic in nature (given the context) - they are collectible in all shapes and sizes.

Source: Just felt like making it up cause what do I know?
.

 

Is it rare?
How much gold mined/found each year is in nugget form? Virtually bugger all.
How many actually get on the market and are sold as nuggets rather then sold to places like Perth Mint and destroyed permanently?
Many nuggets are hoarded by the finder and never sold? Often due to lowballers.

Collectible?
Every gold nugget is utterly unique. Inclusions of other minerals are naturally occuring and should not necessarily detract from its value. Inclusions can also help identify a nugget as real.
Small gold nuggets are fractional. Consider the premiums fractional coins and bars attract. It ticks all the same boxes. A single 0.1gram (A tenth of 1 gram) nugget has a current "spot" value of $5-6. They could be very handy in SHTF circumstances. Easier than carrying around a truckload of round 50c or asking if anyone has change for a 1/10 gold panda.

Selling.
I sold around 50 lots of small nuggets on ebay last year. Mainly in 1-2 gram lots of 10 nuggets. Average price achieved per gram after fees was $63.50, or around $70 plus post for the buyer. My best price achieved was over $100 per gram which occured 4 times. All auctions started at 99 cents with no buy it now listings.

I believe that prospectors also deserve a decent return on their labor and costs. Gold nuggets are hard work to find, and not getting any easier to find.

If you pay spot less % to a prospector you are getting a bargain IMO and selling the poor bugger short. Try detecting yourself sometime and you may better appreciate the effort required.



Source: A.Prospector

 

Thanks for your opinion and thoughts. re: your last paragraph. I own a minelab 3000 which I've sparsely used. I also fossick regularly for gemstones. So in terms of detecting myself and appreciating the effort required................I'm well aware of the input. What I am not aware of though, is the price of gold in small nugget form. Thank you for your post.

 

Dude - I'm going to start charging your Peeps for using my good name.

 

So long as I use your name in the context of gold and nothing else, then your good name and credibility will stay "golden". My pleasure!

 

Stop word searching yourself.

 

Wasnt having a crack at you. Glad to hear you go for a swing. 3000 is a good machine.

 

No problems here. Thanks again for your thoughts.

 

Bought a few G's last week
2.1g for $109 (6 nuggets)
2.4 for $114.60 (6 nuggets)
So the $65 per gram sounds about right
Working on 91% purity.

 

The prices I achieved were last year when gold (and everything else) was selling for higher than currently. The purity of most of them would have been over 95%. Top shelf nuggets whatever size.

I only recommend dealing in Australian nuggets. We produce some of the purest gold on the planet here so why import? Purity varies but is fairly consistently high, particularly in Vic. Not so much gold is found here now. Most finds especially big nuggets are in WA. (generalising here) Also by buying and selling Aus. nuggets you are keeping both the money and the PM in the country.(In your face big mining companies).
Nuggets from different parts of the world can be very high in silver etc. Alaska I think is an example.

I dont know exactly which state and areas have the highest purity gold. Any facts about this from others would be great info. Every 2nd seller on ebay reckons their nuggs are 98% pure from all over the country. Ive asked a few how they knew this but some only said "all the gold from around here is that pure" or "I showed some to jeweller and he did an acid test" (22k I think).

I believe that the use of XRF machines to non-destructively test nuggets and provide data to both buyer and seller can be a very good thing. It will sort high grade from the not so good and you can deal accordingly. As a seller I am pleased that it is possible for me to get a reading that I can put in my listing. I am confident that if I can tell a buyer this info then they are more likely to bid/deal on it.

If buying nuggets that have not been tested, I see no reason why you couldnt make it a condition of sale that the gold be of an agreed minimum purity. If a buyer then gets the gold tested and it is inferior they can get a refund or reduction in price paid. I would be interested in hearing from anyone who could get some tested that they have purchased from ebay.

I am but a humble prospector but I hope some of this makes sense. Took me a friggin hour to write it.

 

I've detected many times with a Minelab GPX 4500 and spent days (literally!) finding nada. Obvious to say, but you gotta go where the gold is to find any and that is pretty difficult. In my experience, its more profitable to do a 9-5 job and from that income buy gold as opposed to the time taken to prospect and find nuggets.

 

Great analogy.

 

Fishing I sit in a boat sinking cans looking out over the water. Gold prospecting I walk kilometres in the desert waving a stick at the ground listening for beeps then dig a hole for nuttin in the dusty heat. Fishing beats prospecting every time!