© Marko Lauronen
A fairytale gold peak was found in the gold village of Tankavaara on Sunday. The 61.9-gram hippu is the largest piece of gold found in Finland using the shovel digging method for more than 15 years. The collection value of the heap can be up to 30,000 euros.
Hippu was found at the same time as the village of Tankavaara in Sodankylä competed in the Finnish Championships in gold panning on Sunday. The discovery was not related to the competition, so the time was just an exciting coincidence, says Marko Touru, who organized the competition.
Touru got a picture of the hip fresh on his phone in the middle of the final day of the gold panning race. What is also special is that such a large tip was found by the shovel digging method.
– It felt pretty incomprehensible. First, that discovery and how it was found at that very time, Touru says.
© Edited by MTV
Hippu is darker than normal. Photo: Marko Lauronen
Information and pictures of the discovery were sent to Tourula by Marko Lauronen, this joint conquest partner. The finder of the hippie had leased a week of excavation rights from Touru and Lauronen.
Nor was the discoverer to believe the truth
The digger had called Lauronen on Sunday morning to see if he could visit the scene when a special thing was found.
– Lauronen went to visit and had thought in his mind that when there are sometimes 2-3 gram hips, that now someone has found such a three gram heap. Even such is already a big discovery as well as an expensive hippie, Touru times events.
When Lauronen had arrived, the digger had picked up the hump from the paper bag, shaking his hand and asking if it was correct. Lauronen identified the hunt as correct and sent pictures of it to Touru, who was involved in leading the competition as a race organizer. Touruka did not immediately believe what had happened and was true.
Shortly afterwards, Lauronen and the finder of the hippie came to the race area to show the hippie.
– He had his hand firmly in his fist and the hippie was inside his fist. Hippu showed that it was still moist and had moist clay stuck in it. There was no doubt that it had just been found, Touru tells a special story.
The discoverer does not want publicity
The announcer of the race tried to interview the finder of the hippie fresh, but this, according to Tourula, was in such an emotional state that hardly anything was said. He just looked like a hippie and people rushed to watch and shoot.
– And then little by little, and with a little voice, he returned to the conquest to continue digging. Yesterday I went to chat a little more with him and he got a few words out of his mouth. He left home yesterday when the excavation period for the rented takeover ended, Touru says.
The gold digger was not involved for the first time
Although the creator of the discovery was digging for the first time with that conquest, according to Touru, he has been touring for 14 years with various conquests. He doesn’t have his own seizure, but he’s toured as a tenant in various gold areas.
– It was no coincidence for a beginner, but he does have the knowledge and experience, the basic knowledge and technology he has, Touru explains.
The digger of the lease may keep his discovery
Lease occupations are made under different agreements with different divisions. Touru says they have the digger allowed to keep all the gold they can find. The digger enters into a lease and pays for the right to dig for a specified period.
– It is based on the fact that we do not have time to be present with the conquest, other than to guide the beginning. We are therefore unable to monitor those discoveries, and it is therefore desirable to avoid unpleasant situations in which the excavator could not honestly show what has been found in the excavations, Touru says.
In this case, according to Tourula, the game remains fair and honest on both sides. The diggers are often very self-sufficient in the takeover owned by Touru and Lauronen. The average rental period is one week during the summer holidays. The main season is from Midsummer to the end of August.
– Some go fishing for a week and others come to dig for a week, Touru says with a laugh.
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The soil is shoveled into buckets and then rinsed with water in a gutter
In the shovel excavation process, the soil is first excavated in buckets and the buckets are then taken to the gutter. In the gutter, the soil is rinsed with running water and the gold gets stuck in the grooves in the gutter. In mechanical excavation, the process is basically the same, according to Touru, but the excavator produces more soil at once and the sizes of the gutters are considerably larger.
What happens to the hippie?
The discoverer had told Touru yesterday that he had not yet been able to decide what he was going to do to the hip. Most likely the hippie will end up in a desk drawer, Touru estimates.
– We gave instructions for both storage and sale if he starts thinking about selling. For example, collectors can be collectors and it can even end up for auction if the finder does not want to keep his discovery himself, Touru says.
Hippu is most valuable when not handled
According to Touru, the value of large hips is maintained when they are considered hips. Packing the tops is also important so that the value does not deteriorate.
-The most important thing is that the hippie cannot move in the box. In this case, its surface may become polished. A normal jewelry tip is acidified and polished, but with big touches, the market is for collectors, for whom the most important thing is that the tip is as original as possible, Touru says.
The hippo should not even be washed, but should contain the soil that was in it when the hippo was found.
The value of the top can be up to 30,000 euros
According to Touru, the location of the discovery, the shape of the hippie, the discoverer, the history and all that affects the price of the hippo. The collector market is international.
“Collectors pay for the rarity and the story involved in finding the hippie,” Touru says.
According to Touru, the long-distance professional digger Vesa Luhta had roughly estimated the collection value of the shovel chip at 30,000 euros.
– The price of a hippie is not always directly related to weight. A hippie can be only six grams lighter, but be many places lower in the hippie list, so its collectible value decreases immediately, Touru says.
Thus, even a small change in size can affect thousands of euros, according to Touru. According to the size of the hips statistics maintained on the Kultahippu.fi website.
He was the first to discover the gold bull Yle.