Pyrargyrite

$5,000.00

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A miniature, but a classic. Silver minerals from the famous historic silver-mining district at St. Andreasberg, Harz, Lower Saxony, Germany are just so charming. The mines there operated from at least the 16th century through to the 20th, and were at one time the deepest in the world. Pyrargyrite, named from the Greek for 'Fire' and 'Silver' because of its red colour, is rarely as red as its arsenic-bearing analogue - Proustite, but does show red fiery internal reflected when intensely backlit. This extremely well-crystallized specimen is broadly half white Calcite and half dark grey to reddish metallic Pyrargyrite. In fact, there might be two silver minerals present here: one as quite ragged, but intact, somewhat bladed dark grey crystals to 7 to 8 mm in length; and a more silvery-grey equant phase. From the superb collection assembled by brothers Martin and Michael Günther (1951-2007 & 1956-2021) this is a very rich historic German silver ore specimen.