The relatively small gold nuggets that once accompanied the world's largest gold nugget, and that were on display inside the Golden Nugget, are up for sale.

Inside a bullet-proof case off of the casino floor at Las Vegas's Golden Nugget Casino rests the world's largest gold nugget, "Hand of Faith." For 25 years it was kept company by a bevy of smaller nuggets, most of them large enough to merit their own names: Parrot Head, Eagle Head, Sweet Potato, and the Worry Stone, so called because its owner compulsively rubbed it down to six ounces from its original eight.

All 32 nuggets are being sold as a single lot by the Los Angeles auction house Bonhams & Butterfields on December 3, 2006.

We saw the nuggets at the casino in July, blissfully unaware that within a month they would disappear into a vault in preparation for their sale. Attractions have a habit of disappearing suddenly, without warning, in Las Vegas. So, even though we've heard of no talk of the mighty Hand of Faith nugget vanishing, if you want to see it, we'd recommend that you do so sooner rather than later.

[10/01/2006]