Gold Classics
Klondike Gold
 

  
 Gold Classics - Klondike Gold
Beautiful Crystalline Gold
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Mount Kare near Porgera, Enge Province,
Papua New Guinea.		 San Julian Mine, Ramos, Chihuahua, Mexico. Columbia Gabon
This very fine, bright specimen consists of sharp, flattened, twined octahedra with step faces, locally with second generation of tiny gold crystals scattered on both sides. This roughly square plate is composed of radiating fans of finely reticulated dendritic elongate octahedral gold crystals. Tiny euhedral quartz crystals are locally lodged among the gold crystals. This unusual moderately abraded gold wire is fluted, indicating it is composed of radically twined and elongated crystals. The thick "rams horn" is formed in the same manner. The fish hook is from the Chibcha Indians, circa 1540 This slightly water worn spongy mass has negative casts after small quartz crystals.
       
Hope's nose Torquay, Devon
Great Britain		 Verespatak, Siebenburgen, Romania Berezovsk, Ural Mountains,
Russia		 Forest Hill, Placer County, California
This reticulated cluster is composed of elongated and twinned crystals with a brownish color reportedly due to a minor palladium content. Pale silvery yellow sharp twinned and slightly flattened cubo-octahedra to 5mm are without obvious re-entrant faces denoting a twin plane. This piece is an exceptional combination of bright, complex, twinned clusters of gold crystals. This bright aggregate of flattened, twinned, octahedra to 9mm and crystal plates is a superb example of material from this locality.
       
Mariposa County, California Forest Hill/Michigan Bluff area, Placer County, California Ace of Diamonds Mine, Liberty, Kittitas County, Washington Old Classic Mine, Virginia
This piece displays beautifully with two arborescent plates of gold standing on a slightly iron-stained quartz base. An aggregate of brilliant, arborescent, multiple-twinned flattened, wirelike octahedral crystals on quartz. This particularly spectacular specimen is composed of brilliant, pale yellow, reticulated crystals in flat sprays. This rare Old Classic vein gold weighs 121.3 grams.
       
Winnemucca, Humboldt County, Nevada Nightingale District, Pershing County, Nevada Reed Gold Mine, Cabarrus County, North Carolina Tiouiou, Zapata Field near Santa Elena, La Gran Sabana, Venezuela
This piece, from either the Winnemucca or adjoining Ten Mile District, consists of a spongy mass of of small, arborescent plates and wire or spicular crystals that have been etched from a large quartz matrix.  191.11 grams This superb specimen consists of many spinel-twinned wires. This exceptional, richly colored and slightly water-worn crystalline mass has a 2.4cm edge on a flattened twinned octahedron. The piece was mined in 1828 from the first gold mine in the United States.
34.9 grams.		 Tetrahexahedral Forms
Crystals top row left to right are twinned tetrahexahedral. Crystals at top center and bottom center are untwinned tetrahexahedral. The intergrown group at top right is composed entirely of tetrahexahedral faces.
 
       
Lena River, Yakutsk,
Siberia, Russia		 Western Siberia, Russia Siberia, Russia Spanish Dry Diggin's on the American River, California
This spectacular cube is slightly hopper formed. tapering down to a small cluster of modified crystals. This tabular composite cluster with cubic crystals on both sides weighs 87.93 grams. These elongated multiply twinned octahedra to 4.9cm form 5 out of 6 sections of a complete 360 degree twinned crystal. The specimen weighs 54.93 grams. Attached to the twin are rounded and elongated incomplete octrahedra, hoppered and ribbed. The Fricot nugget (pronounced Free-co), weighing 13.8 pounds, is the largest surviving crystalline gold nugget from the gold rush era. It was found at a mine near Spanish Dry Diggin's on the American River in 1865. Thought to be lost for many years, it was re-discovered in a safe deposit box in 1943.
       

Ironstone's Crown Jewel

One form of gold found in California is gold in quartz which is often hard-rock mined in vertical or horizontal shafts. This contrasts with placer (loose gold, often nuggets) and fine gold that has been recovered by hydraulic mining.

The gold specimen was unearthed at the Sonora Mining Co. mine in Jamestown, California on December 24, 1992. Along with other gold-heavy quartz pieces, the gold was first believed to be bits of damaged machinery.

A number of days later, the materials were examined and found to be full of gold. The “Crown Jewel” was the largest of the pieces, weighing in at 60 lbs.

Word of the find first hit the press on December 31, 1992.

The find caused the Gold Trust and Reinsurance company of the West Indies to make a $20 million offer for the Sonora Mining Corp. of Toronto, Canada.

Many of the smaller specimens of crystalline gold were sold at a Tucson, Arizona gem show. In April 1993, the Sonora Mining Corp. offered the gold specimen as a bond to Tuolumne County, California. The County ultimately declined the offer.

Among those seeking to buy the specimen was the French government.

After acquiring the gold-bearing rock, John Kautz, proprietor of Ironstone Vineyards, had the sample etched with acid and most of the rock removed by tweezers. This process took over a year. What resulted is the specimen that has little original rock in the upper part, and more original rock in the bottom part.

To display “Ironstone’s Crown Jewel,” Mr. Kautz had a three-story building constructed at Ironstone Vineyards. The upper story includes a vault to hold the gold specimen along with the Jewelry Shoppe that sells items that include unusual “gold in quartz” jewelry.

California Governor George Deukmejian opened the exhibit at Ironstone Vineyards.

The specimen is available to be seen during normal Jewelry Shoppe hours at no charge.

The name "Ironstone's Crown Jewel" comes from Kautz family usage and promotional materials for the winery. It's the "crown jewel" among the "jewels" of the historic Alhambra Theatre pipe organ, the caverns, the extensive gardens, the historic gold mining equipment, etc.

Ironstone's "Crown" Jewel, the 44 lb. crystalline gold specimen, the world's largest. On display to the public at Ironstone Vineyards, Murphys, CA
 
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