A specimen of finely crystallized gold from California. Mineralization in the Californian deposits occurred from latest Jurassic through mid-Cretaceous time. Gold mining commenced here in 1851, scarcely two years after the famed placer gold strike that started the famed gold rush of 1849, and lasted for over a century. Crystalline gold is extremely rare. This filigree specimen displays sparkling gold crystals on a piece of quartz matrix of its famous American source.