Cuprite

Item Description

A good representative cabinet specimen of Cuprite featuring splendent, razor-sharp, silver-metallic crystals with bright mirror-like lustre. The piece is from a find several years ago at this now famous locale. The crystals are hard to isolate, so it's difficult to measure individuals, but there is one crystal that I was able to measure at 3 mm across. It really doesn't matter because when you view them up close, they are stunning. The combination of the shimmering surface and the intense red color that can be seen when the crystals are backlit is fantastic. I can see a combination of crystal habits, mostly octahedral and dodecahedral, but there are few small cubic faces in there and what I believe to be trapezohedral faces as well. These are great Cuprites for luster, gemminess, morphology and color. These are few and far between on the market now and from all accounts, nothing is coming out of Milpillas anymore as they've mined through the mineralized zone.