Chap finds £50,000 Gold Nugget on Welsh Beach – Forced to give it to ‘the crown’

Vincent Thurkettle, 60 found what has been described as the biggest ever gold nugget found in Britain.

5M below the water and 40M away from the Royal Charter shipwreck, which sank just to the north of the village of Moelfre on the north-east coast of Anglesey on October 26, 1859.

Vincent had this to say:

‘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.’

‘I’ve spent 39 years prospecting and I have handled a lot of gold nuggets, but I never thought I would find such a large one myself.’

Vincent (the sneaky bugger) found it back in 2012, but like any true mystery gold finder he kept it quiet until May 2016, presumably because he wanted to hunt out more gold, you can’t blame the chap.

However, after all that work though because the nugget was found so close to a shipwreck he had to legally notify the Receiver of the Wreck and the piece is now the property of the Crown.

Vincent expects to receive a finder’s fee…

Finders keepers?