This natural tooth shaped gold nugget was found in Chicken, AK. The old timers wanted to call it Ptarmigan, but nobody new how to spell that so they decided on “Chicken”. People have been mining in this area for over 100 years. This 2.3 dwt. nugget is mounted in a custom frame made of 18 karat white gold. It is almost 1 1/2″ tall. Hunting for salmon sharks has been quite popular in Alaska for several years. They average 400 – 500 pounds. Salmon Sharks are capable of high-speed runs and acrobatic leaps that will impress even the most experienced big game fisherman.
On any given day, local gold miners will come into our shop throughout the year with the gold nuggets they mined that season. We look through their stash and choose the very best nuggets to make into pendants. These are natural pieces of “placer gold” which means they are mined from the rivers and streams around Alaska. Finding gold nuggets in their natural state is very rare. In fact, gold nuggets make up only 2% of all gold that is found. These nuggets themselves will vary in purity from 75% to 95% pure gold.
