Gold , Nugget from French Guiana or Suriname 1.253 grams- 1.25 g - (1)

Prospecting area 3°47’ North 54°04’ West This nugget comes from French Guiana, a French territory in the Amazon, or possibly from Suriname, a former Dutch colony. I harvested it myself there more than thirty years ago on the Maroni River (Marowijne River) which marks the border between French Guiana and Suriname, in a zone called Papaichton, about half a day’s boat ride from the town of Maripasoula. At the time I was an gold seeker in French Guiana, and I worked mainly on the rivers, the Oyapock which borders Brazil and the Maroni which borders Suriname. With my team we used a floating gold dredge that pumped sediment from the river bottom. This sediment was dumped onto a washing ramp (sluice) whose bottom was covered with a mat. The whole thing was installed on a floating barge which also served as a living base with kitchen and dormitory. The nuggets and the heaviest sediment settled by gravity onto the mat and the rest of the sediment returned to the river. The nuggets visible on the surface of the mat were collected by hand directly. The heavy sediments containing the specks and flour gold were embedded in 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 the powdered 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’m now putting a few of them up for sale. Although located in the Amazon (South America), French Guiana is a French overseas department. These nuggets are therefore French. However some are Surinamese (Dutch) when the barge was closer to the shores of Suriname than to the shores of French Guiana. Indeed the border between the two countries is simply a virtual line in the center of the river. So are the nuggets French or Surinamese?… hard to say precisely, it all depends on which side of this virtual line the barge was on the day they were collected. The gold from this region is quite pure, generally with a fineness around 950 to 980 parts per thousand, which corresponds to 22.80 to 23.50 carats. Back then artisanal mining of this type was legal; now it is prohibited and gold mining is reserved for a few large industrial entities. French Guiana is now best known for the Kourou space base that launches satellites into space. Of course, the photos truly correspond to the nugget being sold, and I am sending you the exact nugget that is in the photos. All photos were taken in natural daylight. I photographed this nugget as sincerely and precisely as possible using daylight. Please note that differences in screen settings and ambient lighting may cause variations in color, saturation, and perceived tones. I provide fast, secure, discreet shipping in a sturdy C5 envelope (162mm x 229mm) via La Poste France registered mail.

Estimate:$336.06

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