While the Welcome Stranger is the largest gold nugget ever found, the biggest single gold specimen discovered on the planet is the Holtermann 'Nugget'.

Unearthed in October 1872 by German-born miner Bernhardt Holtermann at Hill End in New South Wales, Australia, the gold-embedded-in-quartz specimen weighed a staggering 10,229 ounces (290kg). The rock was valued at £12,000, which is £1.7 million ($2.5m) in today's money, before it was crushed and the gold extracted.

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Read on for evocative vintage images from gold rushes around the world

The most incredible gold nugget discoveries of all time