A gold nugget worth more than $80,000 was stolen from the Long Beach Expo’s coin show in California.
Surveillance images from the convention center showed the man putting his finger under the lip and open the display case and looking over his shoulder and pocketing the nugget before walking away.
The owner, Bob Campbell, owner of All About Coins shop in Salt Lake City, said that the nugget was reportedly discovered in the Yolo River near Weed, California during the California Gold Rush in 1849. He stated that the nugget has been privately owned for the last 175 years.
Long Beach Police are investigating and Campbell is offering a $10,000 reward.
Numerous notable gold nuggets have been discovered in Northern California’s gold country. In 2014, the “Butte Nugget”, a 75 troy ounce chunk of gold was discovered and was sold to a private collector for $400,000.
In 1977, a gold prospector using a metal detector unearthed the “Mojave Nugget” in Kern County, California. The 156 troy ounce nugget has a melt value of more than $370,000 and was donated to the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.
