  We present results on the mass and spin of the final black hole from mergers
of equal mass, spinning black holes. The study extends over a broad range of
initial orbital configurations, from direct plunges to quasi-circular inspirals
to more energetic orbits (generalizations of Newtonian elliptical orbits). It
provides a comprehensive search of those configurations that maximize the final
spin of the remnant black hole. We estimate that the final spin can reach a
maximum spin $a/M_h \approx 0.99\pm 0.01$ for extremal black hole mergers. In
addition, we find that, as one increases the orbital angular momentum from
small values, the mergers produce black holes with mass and spin parameters
$\lbrace M_h/M, a/M_h \rbrace$ ~spiraling around the values $\lbrace \hat
M_h/M, \hat a/M_h \rbrace$ of a {\it golden} black hole. Specifically,
$(M_h-\hat M_h)/M \propto e^{\pm B\,\phi}\cos{\phi}$ and $(a-\hat a)/M_h
\propto e^{\pm C\,\phi}\sin{\phi}$, with $\phi$ a monotonically growing
function of the initial orbital angular momentum. We find that the values of
the parameters for the \emph{golden} black hole are those of the final black
hole obtained from the merger of a binary with the corresponding spinning black
holes in a quasi-circular inspiral.
