Calcite

Unknown Owner

Help improve this recordNo owner is registered for this specimen yet. If it's yours or you know more about it, you can add the owner, provenance, publications and other details.

Iconic in form, the large seed-like Calcite crystals from Sweetwater mine in the Viburnum Trend District, Missouri, USA have been known since the early 1970s but as mining still continues specimens are still occasionally found. This very early specimen is from the Martin Kershaw Collection in Newcastle, England. Martin began serious collecting during the 1960s but his collection was largely 'complete' by the 1990s meaning that this fine piece is most likely from an early find at this important mine. Dominated by one main seed-like amber coloured Calcite crystal reaching 11 cm in length, this crystal sits centrally on matrix, lying relatively flat, but completely terminated as its tip is elevated slightly above the matrix like a torpedo ready to launch. It presents very nicely with undulating stepped glassy surfaces and no damage to its upper parts. Its base is terminated too, but with a more complex stepped sequence of smaller crystal tips as it has grown around matrix and its furthest tip is very slightly cleaved away where it extends beyond the base of the grey marly rock matrix. Minor small brassy Chalcopyrite crystals are scattered around the matrix too.