Cinnabar with Mercury (ex Brian Kosnar Collection)

Item Description

The Almaden District in Spain has been operating for two millenia (2000 years) and has produced approximatley 1/3 of all the native mercury in the world in that time. This piece is a classic association specimen from the famous Las Cuevas Mine featuring very sharp, highly lustrous, gem quality, deep ruby-jack style Cinnabar crystals which are associated with a few microscopic spherical "blebs" of Mercury! The Mercury is actually not crystallized, as it exists at a liquid state at room temperature, and does not actually crystallize unless the air temperature drops to -40 Celsius. I have photographed the piece under the microscope to show its quality. This is not common to find on the market, and it's so cool to see Mercury like this suspended on a specimen. Enjoy!