Gold Nuggets

Any experts on the forum?

I have several ounces of gold nuggets. I am curious about their purity. I am also curious about their composition (some also contain obvious quartz). Testing them would seem to degrade their collectibility. However, it's hard to know where to begin to assess their approximate value. Can you recommend any resources to do this?

Thanks in advance for the help.

 

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If you tell me EXACTLY where they were found (latitude & longitude) plus the time of year. I'll pick some up and have them checked out for you at no charge.

 

Sometimes it's hard to read tone and sarcasm online. So, I can't tell if you are being serious, or making a joke so you can go prospect there too.

Anyway, there are 50+ nuggets plus hundreds of flakes that make up this stack. Most were purchased long ago and given as gifts to me. I have no idea of any of that information.

 

Generally with nuggets unless they are being sold as natural specimens to be collected or used in jewelry, etc they are going to have to be melted and assayed to determine what you're dealing with for purity if you don't know exactly where they originated from. But even if you do know where they came from when selling almost all places aren't going to take your word and won't even pay you for the gold they contain until after they have a chance to melt/assay them. I'd say that especially goes for a hodge podge collection of nuggets from various places. You'd probably be much better off value wise separating out the collectible pieces to sell yourself and then grouping the lessor ones all together to get melted/assayed.

 

most, of mine, as near pure gold, including the flakes

 

Find a piece with the quarts in it and test it for the lot.
It's not like your going to damage it much and loose all the value.
20-22 my is a good baseline.

 

If it is panned alluvial gold , small nuggets and dust, it may be in the 90%, but most larger nuggets and hard rock pick mined tends to be in the 80s as average. Some much higher, some much lower, some pyrite.

 

Thanks for the percentage estimates. Yes, most are very small nuggets (few mm). Some of the medium sized nuggets are nickel to quarter-sized. None are pyrite. That's pretty identifiable.