The Golden Stonefish

Discovered by three mates during a prospecting trip north of Kalgoorlie in 2004. Found with a metal detector, the nugget was buried 50 centimetres underground in what was thought to be an ancient creek bed.

Ian, Mike and Dan were on their first trip as a trio and made a commitment to split everything they found equally. One day towards midday, the youngest and most inexperienced of the group, Ian, checked in via the ultra-high frequency radio to say he had only dug up rubbish. Dan explained that just "two minutes later Ian calls again and says he's deeper and the detector is screaming, what should he do?" They told him to "keep digging" and rushed to meet him.

Dan explained the moment he and Mike reached Ian:

"About 5 minutes later we get to Ian just getting out of a hole and he runs across the flats like and emu shouting 'It's gold! It's a nugget!...His smile was bigger than his face and he was shaking and trembling like a leaf. Mike was jumping up and down cheering and shouting, all [I] could do was have an asthma attack, and hang onto the nearest tree."

The men made scales from some milk crates, wash basins, coarse string and an iron bar. They 'weighed' it against an 8 litre container of water and guessed the nugget weighed around 7.5 kilograms. Their estimate was close, the Golden Stonefish weighs 7.2 kilograms (231.48 troy ounces).

Initially, the trio thought of calling the nugget 'Beer Money' but settled on The Golden Stonefish because of its resemblance to the less than attractive fish which is native to Australian waters.

The Golden Stonefish was deposited at The Perth Mint by the finders for safekeeping. They later sold the nugget to the Mint in 2005.