Cuprite (classic material)

Item Description

An classic from one of the most productive and well-known mineral producing districts in the Western United States. First and foremost, Bisbee is famous for its copper minerals, and this piece is a good representative example featuring dozens of small (up to about 4 mm), sharp, metallic, dark red colored crystals of Cuprite, sitting on massive Cuprite matrix. The crystals show combinations of cubic, octahedral and dodecahedral faces. They look best under magnification, and we've photographed them with a Canon MP-E 65 mm macro lens to better illustrate their quality. This is an old specimen, dating back many decades, From the collection of Richard ("Dick") Philip Hauck formerly of Bloomfield, New Jersey and now a resident of Franklin, New Jersey. Dick is an avid collector of minerals, books, and mining memorabilia, along with being an accomplished author in the mineral world. Arguably, his greatest claim to fame is being the co-founder of the Sterling Hill Mining Museum in Ogdensburg, NJ. Dick purchased the land on which the Sterling Hill Mine resides in 1988, and the museum has been running strong since.