Pseudomalachite

Unknown Owner

Help improve this recordNo owner is registered for this specimen yet. If it's yours or you know more about it, you can add the owner, provenance, publications and other details.

This cabinet-sized specimen of the rare copper phosphate Pseudomalachite - named in allusion to its similarity to Malachite (e.g pseudo meaning 'false') comes from the settlement of Erl near Kasbach-Ohlenberg in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. The first name for the species was Ehlite, after the earlier spelling of the village, as Ehl, but strangely, the designated Type Locality is Virneberg mine in a separate valley 3 miles to the north. Pretty much every specimen from Erl is of significant age: the mine having only worked for a short period during the early 1800s. Consisting of a massive white Quartz matrix, Pseudomalachite covers 50 to 60 percent of the display surface as matt green coloured spherical aggregates and more extensive crusts of coalesced botryoidal aggregates. In two places deeper green crystallized patches sit partially beneath the botryoidal crusts. There is minor bruising to the Pseudomalachite in a couple of places, but this is an old-time specimen. It is from the superb systematic collection assembled by the brothers Martin and Michael Günther (1951-2007 & 1956-2021).