Figure of the month: 93 kilograms of gold

The “Holtermann Nugget,” discovered in 1872, is considered the largest piece of gold ever found worldwide, with a gold content of 93 kg in a rock weighing a total of just under 286 kg. 

 However, the “Welcome Stranger,” discovered four years earlier and weighing 72 kg, also claims this top spot. The discrepancy is easily explained: the Holtermann Nugget was, in fact, not a nugget at all. And the man it is named after, Bernhardt Holtermann, was not even there when the huge rock was extracted from a gold mine near Hill-End, Sydney, Australia. But first things first…

The nugget that wasn’t a nugget

Bernhardt Holtermann, originally from Hamburg, evaded Prussian military service by migrating to Australia, where he initially worked in Sydney as a waiter, baker, butcher, and ferryman before joining a group of gold miners. After several unsuccessful years, he became co-owner of a small gold mine, where the impressive chunk of ore containing 93 kg of pure gold was eventually found. Holtermann himself was not involved in the discovery – and yet the “Holtermann Nugget” bears his name for a reason. 

Seeing is (and was) believing

Holtermann arrived at the site just in time to stop his partners from crushing the huge chunk of ore to extract the gold. He had recognized the news value of the find and had his picture taken with the discovery, which nearly equalled him in size. A passionate photographer himself, he obviously was a firm believer in the newspaper truism “No story without a picture”. The nugget, which wasn’t really a nugget at all, thus derived its name. Following the discovery, Holtermann soon retired from gold mining and devoted himself entirely to photography. He used the fortune he had made as a gold miner to build a 27-meter-high tower in Sydney, which enabled him to take impressive panoramic photographs of the city and the harbour.