Cuprite (rare locality)

Item Description

This piece is labeled as Cuprite from Thailand, with "Eisenberg" (Iron Mountain) and the name "Lop Buri", but I don't know if these refer to the locality in Thailand or something else. I can only find one locality in Thailand on mindat.org that mentions Cuprite, the Pinyok Mine in the Yala Province, but I can't say for certain if this piece was found there. I can't find another example for comparison anywhere online, so it's obviously a rare piece in terms of its origin. Additionally, the label gives the name of the former collector, Hans-J.Klafs from Arpsdorf in northern Germany. With that said, we're leaving the piece labeled simply as Thailand for now. If anybody out there has some insight as to specifically where this piece might have been found, please let us know. This attractive thumbnail display piece features a handful of sharp, well-formed, textbook octahedral crystals measuring up to 1.7 cm, with a brownish oxidation on the surface, creating a very showy specimen. No major damage on the front/display, but it's not complete on the back. Overall, it's a really interesting and certainly not your run-of-the-mill Cuprite, so if you collect copper minerals or thumbnails, don't let this one get away. From the collection of Colin Manlove.