Pyrite (Cubic)

Item Description

This is the classic mineral find that gets so many people started in mineral collecting with the simple gasp of "surely this cannot be real!" From the famous mine in Spain, an old cluster of sharp cubes to 5 cm on edge makes for a piece of natural sculpture. I often see these in sophisticated collections sitting next to fancier species, and almost without fail the new visitor or the public who has not been exposed to such symmetry in nature goes right for this material, even ahead of much more expensive or "finer' minerals. A perfect cube is simply something most people have a hard time accepting as totally natural, and so the shock of such specimens really helps us to teach and convey minerals to outsiders! It has a breathtaking natural simplicity to the geometry. This is a particularly attractive cluster for the size. As many do, it has a few repairs and some minor edge wear.