Proustite pseudomorph after Silver (rare - historic locality)

Item Description

A fantastic and incredibly hard to find specimen from one of the oldest and most historic mining areas in Europe. Jáchymov (formerly Joachimsthal) dates back several centuries, and presumably silver was known from the area long before any formal mining took place. It's the type locality for Proustite, one of the most valuable and beloved silver-bearing sulfosalts in the world, and one of the famed "Ruby Silvers". This piece is honestly the only one of its kind that I've seen, though surely others must exist, possibly in old museum collections. This small cabinet specimen features small metallic red crystals of Proustite which have formed pseudomorphs after somewhat dendritic native silver, sitting on dark grey-brown native arsenic with attached matrix. The Proustites are best seen up close with magnification, and I can actually see what appears to be a tiny bit of remaining native silver embedded in the arsenic. A really interesting and unusual specimen that would make a great addition to any pseudomorph collection, a suite of minerals from Jáchymov or a sulfide/sulfosalt collection. This piece comes with an old label from well-known Czech mineral dealer, Jaroslav Hyrsl.