Large Gold Nugget

A large gold nugget from the National Mineral Collection at the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. It is part of the museum's Roebling Collection, named for John A. Roebling, a German-born American civil engineer best known for designing the Brooklyn Bridge, a National Historic Landmark. Roebling's donation to the Smithsonian of 16,000 minerals and an endowment of $150,000 for its maintenance formed one of the foundational collections of the National Mineral Collection.

This large gold nugget was collected from the Union Placer Mine in Greenville, California by two old miners, Joe Dacoala and Bill Roedde, who owned and worked the mine for many years unsucessfully. This was the largest gold nugget found in the state in many years.