Hidden Treasure?

A £50K golden nugget from an 1859 shipwreck found on beach.

16:25 11 May 2016

60-year-old Vincent Thurkettle found a £50K golden nugget on the sea bed off the coast of Anglesey in Wales. The treasure, which weighs 97.12g is almost twice as heavy as the UK’s second biggest nugget found in Cornwall in 1808.

 

For the last 150 years, treasure hunters have been trying to find traces of the lost gold. Vincent is one of them. He spent seven summers looking for treasures before he was rewarded for his efforts.

"I was absolutely stunned when I first saw the nugget. The sun was out so the gold was gleaming and because it was under water it was magnified, so it looked huge," he said.

 

"I was really only expecting to find gold dust so I couldn't believe it when I realised it was a huge nugget, it was a magical moment.

 

"My first thought was that I had only ever seen nuggets like it in a museum.

"I didn't want to touch it at first, just to savour the extraordinary moment and burn into my memory how beautiful it looked.

 

"It was stuck in a crevice and as it lay where nature had hidden it, the nugget reminded me of a Faberge egg. When I picked it up it was surprisingly heavy."