Proustite from Niederschlema, Bad Schlema, Saxony, Germany

Proustite, one of two silver sulphosalts known as ruby silver (the other being Pyrargyrite), is an extremely desirable mineral for collectors. This is in part because of its wonderful blood-red colour, but also its rarity in good crystals. This thumbnail specimen, consisting of a small aggregate of well-formed crystals, has been mounted upon an inverted glass stopper. We do not know when this was done, but it is certainly an unusual, but effective way to display a specimen. The Proustite aggregate is dominated by a 11 mm tall well-formed trigonal crystal with great red colour and internal translucency. Surrounding the base of that crystal are small, but equally well-formed Proustite crystals to 4 mm in length. The specimen is from Niederschlema, Schlema, Schlema-Hartenstein District, Erzgebirge, Saxony, Germany, making it a European classic. A top class silver-bearing specimen for the discerning collector.