Calcite - image 1
Calcite - image 2
specimen video

Calcite

Unknown Owner
A classic specimen from this Mexican locality, flattened rhombohedral crystals forming a neat cluster stacked one upon the other. These are often referred to as poker chip calcite. This is intensely fluorescent red under longwave ultraviolet light. Slight cleaving present, this still in good condition. Crystallized completely all around with no points of attachment.

Product details

Species
CalciteAbout Calcite →
SizeCabinet
Dimensions14.0 x 8.0 x 4.0 cm
Added on03/17/2025
Locality
Mexico, San Luis Potosí, CharcasRegional guide →

Known provenance

DateCollectorAcquisition price
—Unknown Owner$345.00
—Weinrich MineralsNot disclosed

Learn more

Calcite
Mineral guide
Learn about Calcite
diverse shapes, colors, and optical quirks; widely available yet scarce elite pieces from Elmwood and Charcas drive collecting value and display.
Calcite
Regional guide
Calcite from Charcas, Mexico
Charcas calcite is one of the great immediately recognizable Mexican calcite styles: flattened, sharply hexagonal rhombohedra stacked like a pile of white-to-gray poker chips, often with satiny or pearly broad faces and glassier edge faces. Good examples have a sculptural, almost architectural quality — single fat disks, stepped stacks, V-shaped clusters, columnar growths, or matrix-free “floaters” that seem too deliberate to be accidental. The classic palette is colorless, white, cream, gray, slightly smoky, and occasionally pinkish; many specimens show a pink to red fluorescence that is part of the locality’s appeal for UV collectors.