Pyrargyrite (classic material)

Item Description

Pyrargyrite is the most well-known an abundant of the "Ruby Silver" minerals. It's one of the few silver-bearing sulfosalts that is not opaque, and fine crystals show a fiery intense red hue internally when backlit. Some of the finest examples of the species are those from Fresnillo, Mexico, and while they typically do not show much red color, they make up for it with superb crystallization. This piece is a beautiful and showy toenail sized piece featuring sharp, rather lustrous, deep grey-black metallic colored, striated crystals, in a beautiful three-dimensional arrangement, free of matrix. The largest crystal is actually a doubly-terminated compound group which measures 2.0 long. I can't find any damage on the front/display side, and it's even partially crystallized on the back. It's hard to convey the quality in a photo or video, but I encourage anyone interested in this piece to look closely at the video to get the full scope of the specimen. From the collection of Vasco Trancoso, a medical doctor and prominent mineral collector from near Lisbon, Portugal (https://www.mindat.org/user-11954.html). He assembled his mineral collection over the course of 60 years, and built a fine worldwide display collection that we recently purchased. This piece is pictured on mindat.org at https://www.mindat.org/photo-186017.html