Have you ever found real gold or gemstones of any significant value?

Question

If so, what, where, when, why and how? Give us your ultimate treasure hunter true story.

Answer 1

I was on a field trip in Piedmont in Italy some twenty years ago looking for the many good garnet and diopside specimens that occur there. The area is famous for demantoid garnet crystals which are often up to 5 or 6mm in size. Whilst digging around I came across a nearly spherical ball of what seemed to be an aggregate of demantiod crystals about 65mm in diameter covered with a layer of asbestos like material. I put it in by bag without thinking too much about until I got back home to England. A long time later I thought that it might have an interesting internal structure so I took a slice off with a diamond saw and nearly fell over when I saw the result. The small outer crystals had formed over core of one huge single gem quality crystal. I had this cut professionally as I did not trust myself to do it justice. The result was two magnificent stones of 23.2cts and 11.08cts. which still are the prized specimens in my collection as anything over 2 or 3cts. is regarded as big for demantoid garnet.

Answer 2

I was drilling an oil well in west central Illinois about twenty years ago and when I drilled into what I thought was fools gold, the cuttings in the samples looked like the usual Iron pyrite, but I later learned from the owners of the mineral rights that it was real gold. I usually save some of this iron pyrite to play tricks on spectators, but not that time. It looks like the joke was on me.
This reminds me of the time we were drilling a gas well in Big Cabin, Oklahoma, for an owner of a truck stop. There was the owner and his wife and daughter and some friends of theirs, husband, wife, and daughter. I was catching samples on this job. I got them all excited about this fools gold and the next morning at daylight, all the women were wading in the slush pit panning for gold til late in the day before they got the bad news. We got a bonus just the entertainment.
I was fishing for rainbow trout on a lake in the Colorado mountains one time when I spotted something glittering in the water. Well, I better shut up and save that story for another time.
I do tend to get long winded at times.