A massive gold nugget is up for sale in California

Tipping the scales at 6.07 pounds, a giant gold nugget found in Northern California will go on sale Thursday in San Francisco, with experts believing it will likely go for at least $350,000.

It has been decades since a piece of gold larger than 6 pounds has been found in the area known for its historic Gold Rush past. This one — called the Butte Nugget — was discovered in the Butte County mountains. The identity of the owner remains a secret.

The nugget is being sold by coin dealer Don Kagin, and he is taking his duty very seriously; in 2011, he was conned into thinking an 8.2 pound nugget was from the California Gold Rush, but it was really from Australia and the owner was just trying to increase the price of the land where he claimed to have found the gold. Kagin ended up having to buy the gold back for $460,000, and then resold it for a whole lot less.

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"This one's for real," Kagin told the San Francisco Chronicle. "Obviously we don't want to get hoodwinked again, so we have checked pretty thoroughly into it."