World's Largest (Fake) Gold Nugget

Las Vegas, Nevada

It's named "Hand of Faith," it's the size of a baby, and it weighs almost 62 pounds. It was found in 1980 by a guy in Australia with a metal detector, who reportedly almost didn't bother to dig it up because he thought that his machine was faulty. Hand of Faith was only six inches below the surface. The Golden Nugget bought it for a million dollars.

Ever mindful of the general casino ban on photography, we noticed other nugget admirers surreptitiously sneaking cell phone cameras out of handbags. As we snapped a few photos with our comparatively blocky SLR, a casino alarm began to sound. "The source of the alert has not been determined," said a woman's voice on an audio loop, over and over. "You will be notified when we determine the source of the alert." We don't think we were the cause, but still scurried away like a couple of claim interloper.

It turned out that we didn't need to be worried at all; the nugget in Las Vegas is only a replica of the real nugget, which is on display in the Golden Nugget casino in Biloxi, Mississippi.