NZ's biggest gold nugget - Grave Story 82

In 1909 two gold miners - Arthur Sharpe and John Scott made the discovery of a lifetime.
They were working the Ross gold field on the West Coast when they found a gold nugget on September 10.
But not just any gold nugget. Described by the Evening Post as as big as a turnip, the Ross nugget weighed 7 pounds and two ounces - over three kilograms today.
It was found on the eastern boundary of the goldfield called Bullock Point - often avoided after the death of another gold miner 20 years before, Jack McCarthy who had fallen and broken his neck.
Sharpe and Scott had found a few other nuggets - but nothing like the size of what came to be called the Roddy nugget after the Minister of Mines at the time Roderick McKenzie.
It was bought from the two men by the mayor of Kumara, James Alexander Murdock, for about £400 - a staggering $70,000 now.
In 1911 the nugget was bought by the government to be used as a coronation gift to King George V.
Here’s where something goes wrong.
The nugget was allegedly melted down and used to gild a tea service. But no one is completely sure. But the Royal Collection Trust which manages the Royals’ collection of valuables have been unable to find either the nugget or the tea service or a record of them.
There was also a conspiracy theory linked to it and whether the nugget was planted by the Ross Goldfields Co to boost its share price.
Arthur Ernest Sharpe had been born in Ross to James (Jim) and Elizabeth Sharpe (nee Phillips). Jim had been born in Staines, Surrey while Elizabeth was born in Hampshire.
Jim himself was a miner and his son followed in his footsteps.
Sharpe died on July 15, 1938 and is buried - along with his parents in the Ross Cemetery.
John Scott is also in the Ross Cemetery - he died on November 3, 1927 aged 76.