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Article: Scottish treasure trove in a jam jar
- Article from:
- The Scotsman
- Article date:
- August 8, 2003
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2003 The Scotsman. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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HE WALKED in off the street, bearing a life's work in a mundane
jam jar; 13 ounces of the purest gold in the world, harvested over a
generation from Scottish waters.
"I've decided to move on," said the prospector. "Would you like to
buy this?" he asked Alistir Tait, a leading dealer in fine jewellery.
To the layman, it may not appear an unduly heavy weight, but in
terms of the precious metal, Mr Tait was about to buy the fruits of a
Herculean labour, the largest quantity of Scottish gold to pass into
the hands of a private dealer in living memory.
Veteran "panners" can sift through 80lbs of gravel just to
retrieve five minuscule flakes of gold and, almost to a man, they
keep the gold in ...