Cinnabar on Quartz, Dolomite and Calcite - image 1

Cinnabar on Quartz, Dolomite and Calcite

Unknown Owner

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A single, twinned, gemmy, lustrous, bright red, crystal of cinnabar, measuring 1.8 cm in length, is perched on gem clear, colorless, quartz crystals to .3 cm in length and white dolomite rhombs to .5 cm across. Oddly, the whole underside of the specimen is covered in translucent, lustrous, tan crystals of calcite to .7 cm across. My gut feeling is that this piece dates back at least to the very early 1980s and was probably one of the very first cinnabars to come out in a trickle that shocked the mineral world. I could see htis being a $10k rock at the time....they were that astonishing! Of cours, e more were mined afterwards and came out in the mid 90s. But now, these large cyclic twins are very rare, and good combo specimens like this more so. They certianly don't "make em like they used to!"