Gold on Quartz

Item Description

An attractive example of this classic material from the old finds of the 1990s. This toenail sized piece hosts superb, micro crystals of brilliant, soft yellow, metallic Gold sitting on Quartz matrix. With some magnification, you can see the Gold crystals are actually beautiful compressed "leaves", which are essentially highly compressed crystals, and you can actually see the outlines of some octahedral and dodecahedral faces at the edges. The crystals are best seen under the microscope, but you can get a good idea of their quality with a loupe, and I've photographed them with a Canon MP-E 65 mm macro lens to better illustrate their quality. This mine is now closed, with further specimen production unlikely, so if you're a fan of Gold specimens or fine crystallized examples (albeit micro) of native elements, don't miss out on this one.