Kevin and his family were living on the poverty line and no closer to a sale three months after the nugget was unveiled. The family remained anonymous, as they waited for the government to grant an export licence for the sale of the Hand of Faith to a genuine overseas buyer.
Time was moving on and by now it was February 1981 and the nugget had still not sold. The Federal Government was procrastinating in providing their approval for the nugget to be sold overseas, and we continued to borrow money from Hugh to live and eat. The gold price had also dropped significantly since the nugget was first placed on the market. It was only following a threat to the government to sue them for the loss of income that they lifted the ban on selling overseas.
Bep Hillier, Hand of Faith Story, p.25.
