The Welcome Stranger was a gold nugget found near Moliagul, Victoria in February 1869 by John Deason and Richard Oates, just two inches below the surface. At roughly 2,316 troy ounces gross weight, it remains the largest alluvial gold nugget ever recorded. It was too large to fit on the assay office scales and had to be broken into three pieces before it could be weighed and processed — within days of discovery, it was melted down entirely.
No intact specimen survives. The gilded treatment on this coin is the Perth Mint's pointed nod to that irreversibility.
The Welcome Stranger was a gold nugget found near Moliagul, Victoria in February 1869 by John Deason and Richard Oates, just two inches below the surface. At roughly 2,316 troy ounces gross weight, it remains the largest alluvial gold nugget ever recorded. It was too large to fit on the assay office scales and had to be broken into three pieces before it could be weighed and processed — within days of discovery, it was melted down entirely.
No intact specimen survives. The gilded treatment on this coin is the Perth Mint's pointed nod to that irreversibility.