PEARL
There are fish tales, and now there's this doozy of a pearl tale from a fisherman in the Philippines. If it turns out to be true, the world has a new largest pearl, by a mile. As first reported by the Palawan News, the unidentified man says he was out fishing a decade ago when his boat's anchor snagged on something. He says he dove down to investigate and returned to his boat with a monster of a natural pearl: It's 2.2 feet long and weighs 75 pounds. By comparison, the world's current record-holder, the Pearl of Lao Tzu, weighs 14 pounds. Even stranger: He brought it home and stuck it under his bed for years.
The man apparently had no idea of its potential value and considered it more of a good luck charm than anything else, reports the BBC. Finally, when he was moving, he gave it to his aunt, who just happens to be a tourism official in Puerto Princesa, reports the Guardian. “We were amazed," she says. "So far based on our research in the web we cannot find any recorded article about this kind and as big as this size," she says. It's now on display at city hall, and his aunt has put out a call on Facebook for gem experts to help authenticate it. "Just for the info of everyone, all recorded giant pearls in the world came from Palawan Waters," she adds. If this one turns out to be legit, the value is estimated to be north of $100 million.
GOLD
Thursday, a massive gold nugget weighing in at around 9 pounds. Found in central Victoria's Golden Triangle in Australia by an explorer who wishes to stay anonymous, per ABC.net.au, the gleaming chunk of precious metal, estimated to be worth up to $190,000, was found 12 inches below the surface using what Gizmodo Australia calls a $7,600 Minelab metal detector known as the "next level of gold detection." "I thought it was rubbish at first, maybe an old horseshoe," says the prospector, who's been scouting for buried treasure in his spare time for 10 years with a group of friends, per 9News. But as he dug deeper, the finder of the nugget now being called "Friday's Joy" realized he hadn't just stumbled across some junkyard-worthy detritus.
The prospector, who had found a 9-ounce gold nugget the previous day, initially wasn't sure what to do with this substantially larger find—discovered, incidentally, in a location that had already been "worked over," a Minelab rep tells AustraliaMining.com—so he rinsed it off with water, wrapped it tinfoil, and stuck it in his oven for the night. For now, the gold piece remains secure in a bank vault until it can be sold at auction, and the prospector, who has promised to split the proceeds with his metal-detecting group, is planning to use his share to buy a van so he can travel around his home continent. His lucrative new lucky charm is still far from being the world's biggest: Per the Discovery Channel, that honor goes to the 158-pound "Welcome Stranger" nugget found in Dunolly, Victoria, in 1869.
There are fish tales, and now there's this doozy of a pearl tale from a fisherman in the Philippines. If it turns out to be true, the world has a new largest pearl, by a mile. As first reported by the Palawan News, the unidentified man says he was out fishing a decade ago when his boat's anchor snagged on something. He says he dove down to investigate and returned to his boat with a monster of a natural pearl: It's 2.2 feet long and weighs 75 pounds. By comparison, the world's current record-holder, the Pearl of Lao Tzu, weighs 14 pounds. Even stranger: He brought it home and stuck it under his bed for years.
The man apparently had no idea of its potential value and considered it more of a good luck charm than anything else, reports the BBC. Finally, when he was moving, he gave it to his aunt, who just happens to be a tourism official in Puerto Princesa, reports the Guardian. “We were amazed," she says. "So far based on our research in the web we cannot find any recorded article about this kind and as big as this size," she says. It's now on display at city hall, and his aunt has put out a call on Facebook for gem experts to help authenticate it. "Just for the info of everyone, all recorded giant pearls in the world came from Palawan Waters," she adds. If this one turns out to be legit, the value is estimated to be north of $100 million.
GOLD
Thursday, a massive gold nugget weighing in at around 9 pounds. Found in central Victoria's Golden Triangle in Australia by an explorer who wishes to stay anonymous, per ABC.net.au, the gleaming chunk of precious metal, estimated to be worth up to $190,000, was found 12 inches below the surface using what Gizmodo Australia calls a $7,600 Minelab metal detector known as the "next level of gold detection." "I thought it was rubbish at first, maybe an old horseshoe," says the prospector, who's been scouting for buried treasure in his spare time for 10 years with a group of friends, per 9News. But as he dug deeper, the finder of the nugget now being called "Friday's Joy" realized he hadn't just stumbled across some junkyard-worthy detritus.
The prospector, who had found a 9-ounce gold nugget the previous day, initially wasn't sure what to do with this substantially larger find—discovered, incidentally, in a location that had already been "worked over," a Minelab rep tells AustraliaMining.com—so he rinsed it off with water, wrapped it tinfoil, and stuck it in his oven for the night. For now, the gold piece remains secure in a bank vault until it can be sold at auction, and the prospector, who has promised to split the proceeds with his metal-detecting group, is planning to use his share to buy a van so he can travel around his home continent. His lucrative new lucky charm is still far from being the world's biggest: Per the Discovery Channel, that honor goes to the 158-pound "Welcome Stranger" nugget found in Dunolly, Victoria, in 1869.
