Published on: September 20, 2024, 08:13h.
Last updated on: September 18, 2024, 09:01h.
EDITOR’S NOTE: “Vegas Myths Busted” releases new posts every Monday, along with a bonus Flashback Friday edition.Today’s post in our series originally appeared on March 25, 2024.
“The Hand of Faith is the largest known gold nugget, the second-largest ever found, and the biggest discovered using a metal detector,” states the information on the Golden Nugget Las Vegas’ website.
While this information is accurate, there are doubts about whether it’s actually on display at the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas.
What’s displayed under the sign claiming “World’s Largest Golden Nugget” — the item that numerous tourists take photos with daily — is, according to casino staff, a duplicate, a counterfeit, a Hand of Fake.
Bad Faith
The Hand of Faith, weighing nearly 62 pounds of pure gold, was unearthed in September 1980 by Australian Kevin Hillier, who almost dismissed it as he thought his new metal detector was malfunctioning.
In 1981, Hillier sold the Hand of Faith for $1 million to Golden Nugget Inc., which showcased it at their downtown Las Vegas location, the company’s only casino at the time.
In 2014, Vital Vegas blogger Scott Roeben revealed that the Golden Nugget had relocated the Hand of Faith to their newly opened site in Biloxi, Miss., on May 1 that year.
During this period, the Las Vegas casino still exhibited a Hand of Faith. A casino representative admitted to Roeben that it was a stand-in, but assured the genuine article would come back to Vegas by the end of that summer.
“Apparently, this loaning-out scenario is quite common,” wrote Roeben at the time, “as the same situation occurred when a Golden Nugget opened in Atlantic City in 2012.” That particular location no longer features a Hand of Faith display.
Where’s the Real One Now?
On March 22, 2024, Casino.org contacted a receptionist at the Las Vegas Golden Nugget. She also asserted that the exhibited Hand of Faith there was fake gold.
When asked how she knew for sure, she replied, “because my manager just informed me.”
This leaves two other present Golden Nugget sites with Hand of Faith exhibits: Biloxi and Laughlin, Nev. Similar to the Las Vegas display, neither has a label indicating theirs as a replica. (A fourth Hand of Faith was showcased at the Golden Nugget in Lake Charles, La. until sometime last year.)
Casino.org reached out to receptionists in both Biloxi and Laughlin, leading to an unexpected twist in this tale…
Both receptionists confessed that, to their knowledge, their Hand of Faith replicas.
What’s Going On?
As per Roeben, the actual Hand of Faith is still exhibited in Biloxi because, according to his source, no return trip was made. This was due to the unexpected high cost of shipping and insuring the nugget for its initial transfer, which exceeded $1 million.
Hence, the Biloxi receptionist was either misinformed or misleading us.
However, it’s also plausible that the real nugget is back in Vegas or that it rotates among the three displays as part of a large shell game.
Regarding what customer service staff know, they might be kept unaware to prevent internal theft. The nugget’s current estimated worth is $3.5 million. Although resale of the stolen gold in its current form would be challenging, melting it down could yield approximately $1.5 million.
Alternatively, all three displays are replicas and the world’s largest golden nugget is no longer exhibited. Maybe insuring it became the most expensive part.
Casino.org requested the Golden Nugget’s PR team to reveal which, if not all, of their three Hand of Faith displays are fake.
As expected, our email was not answered in time for this report.
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