Quartz (var: Chalcedony) (2017 find)

Item Description

From a 2017 discovery in Morocco. This material is coming to us labeled as being found at Smara, which is the second largest town in the Laayoune-Sakia El Hamra region, so the discovery might not have been made at Smara, but the specimens could have been acquired / sold there. If you're a collector of Quartz and its many varieties, this is something new and interesting, and certainly doesn't resemble anything I've seen before. The piece appears to have grown in multiple generations with a soft white flowing deposition of Chalcedony associated with beautiful golden semi-botryoidal "balls" of Chalcedony measuring up to 2.4 cm. When it's backlit, the piece shows wonderful internal colors. Very little of this material seems to be out there now, so if you missed out on them when they made a big splash in Tucson a couple years ago, don't miss out on this one.