Herein, we report the functionalization of gold nanoparticles with a pyrene fluorophore via a connecting nucleobase spacer. The resulting gold nanoparticles display inherent photoluminescence behavior and are not quenched by gold nanoparticle surface plasmons. The appearance of excimer emission corresponding to pyrene supports the proposed arrangement of the pyrene entity on the gold surface in a close-packed manner. This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry and the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique.