Calaverite (rare classic material)

Item Description

The Cripple Creek District in Colorado was one of the most prolific gold and telluride producing areas in the United States. It was one of the richest gold deposits due to the fact that the telluride minerals carried a very high percentage of gold content compared to other orebodies where the gold is randomly distributed in the rocks. Good specimens from this area are highly sought after by collectors, and it is well justified as some superb examples are known from the various mines in the area. This specimen is features beautiful, splendent, tabular, striated, monoclinic crystals of the rare telluride species , Calaverite which have a silvery-bronzy, sitting on matrix. The largest Calaverite measures only a couple mm, and we have photographed the piece with a Canon MP-E 65 mm macro lens to better illustrate the quality. These specimens are very difficult to obtain, and considering that the majority of them were mined over 100 years ago, the only source for specimens is old collections. This particular piece comes with a label from rarities dealer, Gunnar Farber, which states the piece was mined in 1923. From the collection of Colin Manlove.