Quartz ps. Calcite on Quartz ps. Calcite - image 1

Quartz ps. Calcite on Quartz ps. Calcite - image 3

Quartz ps. Calcite on Quartz ps. Calcite - image 4

Quartz ps. Calcite on Quartz ps. Calcite

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A very interesting calcite specimen showcasing the kinds of multigenerational growths of calcite and quartz that makes Uruguay specimens so collectible. The piece showcases an 8 cm columnar crystal that seems at first to be a barrel-shaped calcite but actually is a large and strange quartz crystal with unusual faces. Small quartz points jut out both the top and bottom. It takes a while of looking at this thing to accept that it really is a quartz, primarily...intermixed with beige calcite. The shape is a real stumper and we believe that this quartz was cast after a previous calcite in the shape of a calcite, rather filling a hollow void of a calcite crystal (tall, elongated, hexagonal - it makes sense!), where that outer cast was simply lost after the replacement. It is the only explanation for a calcite-shaped quartz with quartz tips sticking out (like ends of a hot dog!). And, this large crystal is perched upright, with tips sticking out the top and bottom, on a natural pedestal of small sparkling quartz points. However, when you look at that pedestal, you see it is actually quartz covering a hexagonal calcite (probably a complete replacement pseudomorph). So we had calcite, replaced by quartz in and out; and atop this is a calcite that filled a cast made by calcite from the inside. All of this happened in multiple generations of growth and chemistry, on one undamaged, aesthetic, complete -all-around piece.