The world's largest recorded nugget is "The Welcome Stranger". The find occurred at Black Lead (or Black Reef), Bull-dog Gully, Moliagul and was broken up on an anvil at nearby Dunolly in Victoria, Australia, to be weighed in that towns bank. The finders were John Deason and Richard Oats, the find occurred on 5th February, 1869.
Different variations of the find location and ounce quantity exist. For many years the most popular ounce rating was 2,284 ounces (71.01 kilos).
However the publication "Gold Nuggets of Victoria" from the Department of mines, Melbourne, Victoria lists the price of gold at the time as four pounds, one shilling and sixpence, noting that the cheque for the nugget amounted to nine thousand, five hundred and eighty three pounds, which equals 2,380 ounces.
A reason for the discrepancy may come from the admittance by Deason and Oats that pieces were broken off the main piece. It is possible that the main entire nugget weighed 2,284 ounces and additions from the original find but not still attached accounted for the total presented to the bank. At least that's our theory. If anyone can add light to this please contact the author.
The main point is that (without splitting hairs) Deason and Oats in 1869, in Victoria found about two and a quarter thousand ounces of gold in one piece which became known as "THE WELCOME STRANGER NUGGET" and this is, as far as we know, the world's largest nugget.
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