Origins of this gold rush nugget?

[Spartcom5]

I was told to post this here in hopes for more help! "I picked this up the other day at my LCS. The pin on the back dates it from 1850-1900. I am trying to figure out where it might be from? I was thinking the Alaskan gold rush but someone mentioned they think it may actually be from the California gold rush. Each would make sense as the miners would frequently turn raw nuggets into jewelry pieces like this. There is still some dirt and quartz on the nugget as seen in the pictures. It weighs 6.2 grams. The exact composition of it is 78.53% Au and 21.47% Ag. As far as I am concerned this is known as electrum. Any input is greatly appreciated!"

 

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[firebird]

I remember reading an article somewhere of someone who tried to sell a huge gold nugget claiming he found it here in California but they ran some sort of test with it with a machine and were able to determine its composition and match it to the type of gold only found in Australia. Might be able to do that with yours as well but I think the testing is expensive.

 

[Spartcom5]

Anybody?

 

[dave wiseman]

I think on average that Alaska gold has a higher percentage of gold than that.

 

[Goldwasher]

Alaskan gold tends to have a higher copper amount

 

[arizau]

Nice specimen! What is a LCS?

Just a little factoid. Your stated "exact" composition of the nugget is questionable since nuggets contain several other alloyed elements either in trace amounts or, as in the case of copper, which is almost if not always contained in natural nuggets, often being a significant percentage of the total makeup. As far as content, the gold assay is all that counts due to it's comparative value for the piece...dollars vs. pennies or fractions thereof. I doubt that you will ever be able to determine the area from which your nugget came from unless you can compare it to other existing nuggets from known regions (there are thousands, maybe millions, of them around the world) or trace it's history back to where it was found. As to electrum, maybe but again the means of analysis come into question.

 

[xr7ator]

Local Coin Store.