After the unveiling by the Premier of Victoria, the Hand of Faith was placed on the market for sale. Kevin and Bep were offered several bogus deals for the nugget before genuine overseas buyers started showing interest.
We would have liked our gold nugget to remain in Australia, it is part of Australia’s heritage, and the negotiations for the sale favoured local buyers where possible. We had received an offer and a deposit from a Western Australian buyer that eventually fell through. Cyril also had an offer from a potential buyer in Sydney, however there was some question whether they were genuine buyers and he involved the police just in case. He was right, the buyers turned out to be bogus, and handed over a cheque for $1,000,000 which was fake. They had arranged for a reprint of one page of the yellow pages so that the phone number to the State Bank was in fact to an accomplice. Needless to say they were caught.
Bep Hillier, Hand of Faith Story, p.24.
