Hobby gold hunter may have to hand over 'largest ever' £50,000 find

Weighing 85.7g, the nugget which has been named the Douglas Nugget was found in an unidentified river in Scotland two years ago by an amateur prospector who has chosen to keep his identity under wraps.

Its value is reckoned to be around £50,000 but under “Mines Royal” law, which sometimes requires successful bounty hunters to hand over their gold and silver booty to the Crown, the big find could be in vain. 

The Crown Estate is yet to announce whether it intends to lay claim to the nugget but in the meantime, the prospector has the gold, which at 1.6 inches, is the size of a golf ball safely tucked away in a deposit box.

The gold nugget was discovered using a technique called 'sniping', which sees divers don dry suits and snorkels and lie face down in shallow streams for hours at a time, chipping away at cracks in the rocks with picks and suckers. 

'I was following a crack in the bedrock and found around 2g in fine gold," said the nugget's owner who has been prospecting for fun for around 10 years.

'This then led to a pocket, where I uncovered the nugget. I called over my friend to have a look and we both assumed it to be around 5-7g in weight.

'It wasn't until I removed it that we realised just how big it was. I took off my glove and picked it up, jumped out of the water and screamed, 'Bingo!' to my friend.

'We were both stunned and couldn't believe it. I've never seen anything like it in my lifetime.' 

                                        Britain's largest ever nugget weighs in at 85.7g

Experts confirm the nugget as a rare find and says its shape and size suggest it did not travel far. But since it is the largest find in 500 years, there may well be others in the vicinity, wherever that is. Gold prospecting has seen a resurgence in recent years with Wanlockhead, a village south of Glasgow becoming a mecca for gold panning. 

More and more deposits are being found attracting increasing numbers of panning hobbyists. 

The first commercial gold mine is set to open near Loch Lomond, 400 years after the gold mining activity in Scotland came to an end and panning courses are selling out - one client from Canada reportedly left Scotland with an 18g nugget after his first panning trip.

Expert Leon Kirk with £50,000 nugget (Picture: Picture Exclusive)

Leon Kirk, an expert from Gold Panning Supplies UK, said the nugget's rarity made it difficult to value.

 “I would say it is worth at least £50,000 but, as it's rarer than an Aston Martin or a Faberge egg, a billionaire could easily come along and pay a lot more for it. Historically, it is off the Richter scale.”