Calaverite ex. Harvard Collection

Item Description

Calaverite is a VERY rare crystallized gold telluride species, found in good crystals over 1mm in only a relatively few locations. The most classic old US locality for the species is from the silver and gold mines in Cripple Creek, Colorado (late 1800s and early 1900s). Few good pieces turn up today n the market, though. Most come from old collections and museum deaccessions. THis is a hugely rich specimen, I would say the richest I have handled for sheer quantity of platy calaverite crystals embedded in the matrix, showing brilliant metallic flashes from all sides of the specimen. Many of the embedded crystals reach 1 cm, some clusters more so. The piece is relatively attractive for what it is, is of good size, has incredible richness, and should be valued quite fairly (to those who would know what it is) at $3000. This came from Harvard via exchange to Phil Scalisi to George Elling, though no label comes with the piece. I am tempted sorely to saw this thing in half and get two equally valuable specimens, probably with a rich seam down the middle. Photos simply cannot convey how rich this piece is - the flashes and crystals don't photo well. It IS a significant piece.