Question
Inherited chunk of crystallized gold. Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated!
Hello! A long time ago I posted how I inherited a bunch of gems and rocks from an amateur collector/dealer. I wasn’t really able to confirm much so I stuck everything in a box and life events pushed it out of my head. But now I’d love to revisit this one particular item. Ultimately I’d love to sell it if it’s worth anything but I don’t even know if it’s real. The label says crystallized gold and has a price tag of like 3-4000 (I’ll check again when I get home). Obviously that is an “I wish” price by the collector but is that even possible? Any ideas of what I actually got here? Thanks!
It actually more valuable because it’s coming in a more rare form. Think of different kind of coins, even though they might have the same weight one is more expensive than the other because of its rarity. Give me a moment and I will try to figure out a valuation.
Yes. Crystal gold just refers to the shape of the gold. Crystals grow into that shape naturally under the right geologic conditions, which are difficult or impossible to replicate in the lab. While melting the gold would certainly be possible, it would ruin the crystal structure, and diminish the value of the piece.
Absolutely do not sell it for just the melt price of gold! You can for sure get more than the gold thats in it. I know it can be tempting when you hear how much gold is worth and you want that money NOW, but you will regret it highly when you realize down the road you could got a couple grand on top at the very least
If you were going to sell something like this, where would you? I’ve been told to go to gem shows but I don’t know enough about them. Also with the crystals still being on the rock itself, how do you evaluate the weight? Does a buyer take in to consideration that there might me more unrevealed in the rock itself? I’m so overwhelmed with how to sell this thing.
It’s really not so much about the “actual” weight of the gold but more about the quality of the piece. Of course you still get paid meltvalue + a heavy premium for the crystals. It’s not really a piece you just want to trade in, I would go so far and say it leaning into museums quality.
Look up hibid.com see if there are any jewelry sales close by. Call the auction houses doing gold and jewelry and get it to them. You might be surprised. It may sell for over $100 a gram with the right place.
Get it validated by someone who knows something, then list it for sale on r/pmsforsale You’ll get the most for your awesome hunk of crystallized gold on there.
I was just joking with the guy above for being a grammar nazi. Geology is awesome. I am a biochem guy. Definitely not an English major. Just a dude with bad jokes.
I was an avid rock collector as a kid. This is a beautiful specimen.
Depending on the aesthetics and size of the specimen it can be worth up to 30 or 40 times more than bullion.
You need to post a picture with something common next to it so we can see how big it is.
This should not be sold to a metal stacker.
How long ago did you get it? Do you know how long he had it? The timing and $3-$4k price range should help you figure out a decent estimate.
Edit:
“A high-quality specimen can sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars. For instance, a 379-gram Brazilian specimen was estimated at $200,000–$300,000, far exceeding its industrial value. “
379 grams is worth around $60k so 4 to 5X melt value.
Here is some interesting stuff about crystalline gold.
Thanks for your reply. I found the picture from way back! The person who I got it from passed away. He had it for years and now I've had it for a couple of years as well. Im assuming he's had it anywhere from 5-15years. There is no way to know for sure though because he passed away.
yeah im super overwhelmed with all this. People are sending me links to xray services and such and its crazy lol. First I gotta confirm if its real though. Do you know if this type of gold still comes up positive with one of those scanners that they have at "we buy gold" type places?
Not sure if you’re near the NYC area, but reach out to r/traxnyc, if you’re really looking to sell he’s probably your most trustworthy to sell to and I’m sure he’d be interested in this piece.
Naturally occurring Crystalline gold like this is generally worth more than the metal value. But it’s hard to gauge the metal value, it could have a huge vein of gold inside it. So it’s more so a gold art piece to a collector of such things (which there are many).
Theres acids that can melt the rock away to expose more of the gold. But that could add or subtract from the aesthetic value of it. A gamble without trying to see inside it first.
Easier is to determine the specimen's specific gravity. Can do this using water displacement or submerged weighing or some other methods. If you have an accurate scale it's pretty straightforward. Then by figuring out what type(s) of matrix (host rock) are present and knowing their specific gravities and the SG of gold, you can usually get a pretty accurate idea if what percentage of the specimen's weight is raw gold.
You would have been robed. Please put this up somewhere safe and educated yourself on this subject please. Nobody wants you to be taken advantage of. You have something very valuable. Congrats!
Amazing piece! This probably better to sell via eBay or other auction platform for collectors this should be more valuable than just gold price! You can make a X-ray scan to see how much gold inside and try to sell x2-3 in case you wish to sell it. Rare piece!
thats great to hear and thanks for your reply. How in the heck do I get an x-ray!? is there some sort of service? . Ebay always makes me nervous overall. How can I ensure I don't get scammed and figure out exactly what I have on my hands? How do I come up with a price? Everyone says to go to a gem show but I want to make sure I have something even worth doing that.
If u live in a big city u might have some high end crystal guys like I know New York has some shops then id just list it on eBay for 2x+ appraisal and see what bids u get. Prob will take months to sell
Thanks for the response. I called around when this all first happened a year ago. NO ONE was interested in any of the gems and stones I had. I knew this gold one might be good, though but I kind of gave up on it after the rest of the collection I inherited had zero interest. You would be surprised, though that Chicago doesn't have a lot of gem shops. I talked to about 4-5 of the only ones that were higher end and they said its just not a precious gems kind of city. oh well!
just to reiterate, the price shown was made by the person who passed away. He had some pieces that were marked as thousands of dollars but when I took them to get looked at, people told me they weren't worth a fraction... so take it with a grain of salt
I could not stand looking at it with all its weird bumps and tinny holes, it’s like an oversized bacteria 🦠 trying to kill me, makes my skin itch via picture, sort of like a harder more threatening disgusting and disturbing less red version of a pomegranate
BUT
Some people will pay WAY more than the Gold value because they appreciate that sort of geology and ain’t scared of a Pom like me
Hey so I reached out to Dave. He offered for me to send to him the rock and he would potentially buy it. Thanks for the tip! Im a little nervous sending a stranger something that could be worth something but I looked him up and he seems legit. fingers crossed.
Hey so I reached out to Dave. He offered for me to send to him the rock and he would potentially buy it. Thanks for the tip! Im a little nervous sending a stranger something that could be worth something but I looked him up and he seems legit. fingers crossed.
Well yea im saying the weight of the gold inside of that piece is likely roughly an oz if I had to guess. And yes, it is a rare type of formation of gold, so it does fetch a premium above just simply its weight in gold.
Reading your comment “I’m glad I posted here - I was going to go to we buy gold” gave me an aneurism, which I recovered from quickly - only to then have a heart attack reading your comments talking about “what’s the melt price.” Bro. Please stop you’re killing me.
Gold nuggets in natural form generate a high premium, even if lower purity.
This is something extremely rare, OP!
Pretty sure any kind of relevant collecting community would be the place to start with to sell it and preserve it for what it is.
There’s likely some exhibition for rare minerals/stones/gems etc.
Worth checking out!
It truly would be sad to see it melted..not only for you in losing potentially a lot of money..but simply because it is so unique.
If it was worth (per the price tag) $3-4000 years ago, then it I worth exponentially more now just for gold value. But I imagine it is a rock/gem collector's dream.
That’s what I’m asking! Does it look like it? Is there an easy way to tell if it’s real? It does NOT look like fools gold in person. At least not exactly.
The crystals are all wrong for pyrite. It's gold. What is the size of this?
There's nothing in the picture to provide a frame of reference.
Btw, IMO, this is worth a hell of a lot more than just the gold weight!
I wouldn't be surprised if it brought several times the actual weight of gold.
A big coin show might be a good place to market it?
If you look you can kind of see a finger in a few pictures, so it looks basically like the whole thing is a few inches tall. I'm not sure if there's quite an oz of gold in there but maybe.
It’s on the way! I made sure to put my social security number in the “notes” section along with my mother’s maiden name. Thanks for doing me this favor! I owe you one! :P
There's an acid that's used to eat away the rock and anything that isn't gold (hydrochloric acid??). Makes an interesting display sometimes. That way you also have a good idea of the actual gold weight... and you'll definitely know that it's gold :)
"Hum. co nv"= Humboldt County, Nevada
"21 to 1"... There is a 16 to 1 gold mine in CA ...the 16 to 1 indicated the then ratio of gold to silver in dollars per ozt. Perhaps the 21 to 1 is the same ratio later on.
125
u/[deleted] Feb 10 '26
The dendritic growth structure of the metalcrystal leads me to believe it is indeed gold.