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Recovered Hoard · Recovered

The Hand of Faith

Found 1980 · metal detector, Kingower, Victoria, Australia
RECOVERED
Evidence status: Historical tradition. no documented source (historical tradition); legal status unknown (manual verification recommended). This account is presented as historical tradition, not verified fact. Manual verification recommended. Repository evidence: 0 sources · 0 timeline events · 0 media items · legal unknown · view on the Map Evidence on file: historical tradition

The Hand of Faith: still unexplained.

875 troy ounces, the largest gold nugget ever found with a detector

The law of this ground: Privately sold; on permanent display at the Golden Nugget, Las Vegas.
The subject
developing the photograph…
The manifest
875 troy ounces, the largest gold nugget ever found with a detector
The account

Kevin Hillier swung a detector across ground near Kingower in 1980 and got a roar he couldn't explain. Twelve inches down lay a single nugget of gold weighing twenty-seven kilograms, the largest ever found with a metal detector, anywhere. It sold to a Las Vegas casino, where it still sits in a glass case: proof that the big ones are still out there, and shallow.

How it was found
  • A man sweeping with a metal detector near Kingower, Australia, in 1980 found the largest gold nugget ever taken with a detector, 27 kilos, lying just below the surface. It now sits in a Las Vegas casino.
What the record holds

What remains open

  • No period map of the site has surfaced.
  • No contemporary press coverage has been found.
What we know, and what we don't
Established

No documentary claim is yet established. The account rests on tradition.

Still open
  • No period map of the site has surfaced.
  • No contemporary press coverage has been found.
The evidence room

No documentary or visual exhibits have been located yet. The trail below and the open leads are where this dossier grows next — every exhibit that enters here carries a source.

Where the trail points now
  • Search Library of Congress + DPLA (IIIF) for period cartography of the site.
  • Run Chronicling America for dated newspaper mentions.
  • Query NARA for archival records tied to the site.

Have a source, a map, or a clipping? Add a lead and it enters the record with its citation.

Start the hunt here
The first leads, so no one walks in cold.
Sources and the record
Related case files

The full hunt kit

Starting brief, what's known and disputed, evidence timeline, source list, map card, coordinate-confidence and legal-access summaries, and a field checklist, free with a Fellowship account.

Latest Word From the Newswire

Context, not proof. The dossier's own sources remain the evidence record.

Checking the wire…

Chart position -36.620°, 143.720° (approx.) View on the Map