Gold , Gold nugget from French Guiana or Suriname 6.199 grams- 6.2 g - (1)

Discovery Zone 3°47’ North 54°04’ West This nugget comes from French Guiana, a French overseas department in the Amazon, or from Suriname, a former Dutch colony. I gathered it myself there more than thirty years ago on the Maroni River (Marowijne River) which separates French Guiana from Suriname, in an area called Papaichton, about half a day by dugout from the town of Maripasoula. At the time I was an gold prospector in French Guiana, and I worked mainly on the rivers, the Oyapock which forms the border with Brazil and the Maroni which borders Suriname. With my team we used a floating suction dredge that pumped the sediments from the river bottom. These sediments were dumped onto a washing ramp (sluice) whose bottom was covered with a mat. The whole setup was installed on a floating barge that also served as living quarters with a kitchen and dormitory. The gold nuggets and the heaviest sediments settled by gravity onto the mat, and the rest of the sediments returned to the river. The surface-visible nuggets on the mat were collected by hand. The heavier sediments containing the gold flakes and powder were embedded at the bottom of the mat. From time to time this mat was washed to recover these heavy sediments. These sediments were then processed with a vibrating plate or a pan to recover fine gold. The gold collected was then regularly sold in French Guiana or in Brazil. I kept the finest of the nuggets for my personal collection and I am now putting some up for sale. Although located in the Amazon (South America), French Guiana is an overseas French department. These nuggets are therefore French. However, some are Surinamese (Dutch) when the barge was closer to the banks of Suriname than to the banks of French Guiana. Indeed the border between the two countries is just a virtual line in the center of the river. So French nuggets or Surinamese nuggets? … hard to know precisely, it all depends on which side of that virtual line the barge was on the day they were collected. The gold from this region is quite pure, generally around 950 to 980 fineness, which corresponds to 22.80 to 23.50 carats. At the time, this artisanal mining practice was permitted; now it is prohibited and gold mining is reserved for a few large industrial operators. French Guiana is now best known for the Kourou space base that launches satellites into space. Of course, the photos really match the nugget being sold, and I am sending you exactly the nugget that is in the photos. All photos were taken in natural daylight. I photographed this nugget as honestly and precisely as possible using daylight. Please note that variations in screen settings and ambient lighting can lead to variations in color, saturation, and perceived tones. I offer fast, secure, discreet shipping in a tear-resistant C5 envelope (162mm x 229mm) by La Poste, registered mail."}

Estimate:$1,680.3

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