California Gold Nugget, United States, ca 1849
date: label: date made
content: ca 1849
notes: label: Description
content: The first gold from the Golden State was alluvial, found in rivers and streams and free of the rocky matrix that had once held it. Larger pieces were called nuggets. Smaller ones were called dust. It was this type of river-born metal that gave us one of our most indelible images of the West: a fortune-seeker by a stream, swirling sand and water in a simple pan, looking for the glint of wealth and a golden dream.
label: Description
content: Our nugget weighs about a tenth of an ounce. Its deep yellow color suggests the purity of the metal it contains-about 90 percent.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: California
label: place of issue
content: United States: California
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: National Numismatic Collection
label: See more items in
content: Coins, Currency and Medals
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Chase Manhattan
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1979.1263.01100
label: catalog number
content: 1979.1263.01100
label: accession number
content: 1979.1263
label: catalog number
content: OC 3 B
objectType: label: Object Name
content: gold nugget
label: Object Name
content: money
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: gold (overall metal)
label: Physical Description
content: 0 (overall die axis)
label: Physical Description
content: 0 (overall die axis measurement)
label: Measurements
content: overall:;