VIII: Basket-of-gold
The discovery of the largest gold nugget ever.
Good morning. Today is octidi, the 18th of Floréal, Year CCXXXI. We celebrate le corbeille d'or, a bright yellow shrub that loves rocks.
The definition of a "nugget" is a hunk of gold, free of impurities, that has at some point in the deep geological past snapped free of a gold ore vein and drifted some distance away. Nuggets are a gold miner's most befuddling find, as they represent a quick infusion of cash, but are unreliable in terms of showing whether there's a vein nearby, or even more nuggets. But they also represent the very heart of the gambling-like avarice that animated gold rushes, the backbone of stories like, "in so-and-so land, you can pick gold up right off the ground and fill your pockets."
Like all lotteries, the gold rushes of the world produced a handful of families who obtained generational wealth, dozens of organizations and governments who got fat by taxing and selling to the pursuers, and countless people left destitute by either their own folly or simply bad luck.
So here's the story of the two winners of the biggest gold nugget lottery jackpot of all time: John Deason and Richard Oates.
