Large gold nugget found in California Gold Country finds secret buyer

One of the largest gold nuggets in modern times pulled from Northern California's historic Gold Country has sold to a secret buyer.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported Saturday (http://bit.ly/1snahAB ) that even the sales price of the so-called Butte Nugget will remain a mystery at the buyer's request.

But Don Kagin, the San Francisco-area coin dealer who brokered the deal, said that the sale price for the nugget weighing slightly more than 6 pounds wasn't far off from the asking price of about $400,000.

A gold hunter in July found the nugget in the mountains of Butte County; it went up for sale Thursday with the deal finalized on Friday.

The man who found the nugget also asked Kagin to keep his name and the location of the discovery a secret.