Gold

This is a palm-sized specimen of gold-bearing quartz, with quite a bit of exposed native gold. The quartz has been etched from the matrix with hydrofluoric acid, resulting in a slightly powdery surface texture. The specimen came with a handwritten label indicating “French Creek, Northern California,” though it's unclear whether this refers to the French Creek Mine in El Dorado County or the French Creek Mining District in Calaveras County, both in Northern California.

Despite efforts to find comparable specimens online and through Mindat, there appears to be little publicly available material from either locality—suggesting that very few specimens were preserved or distributed for collection from either location. The specimen itself weighs 332 grams and after conducting a specific gravity test we've concluded that the specimen contains roughly 10.4 grams of gold, quite rich. It's an uncommon locality specimen from one of California's historic mining regions.