Acanthite on Acanthite

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A very elegant and sculptural, competitive level thumbnail specimen of acanthite, this is from a classic silver mining location in Mexico. However, most acanthite thumbnails are going to be your basic cube or cubic variant. This is special, with spires of crystals from a second generation shooting up atop a tilted cubic shape underneath. That cube, underneath, is a previous acanthite crystal, probably a cast after an original argentite crystal, and gives a scaffolding for this surrealist arrangement of a later growth to form. In person, this underlying structure is more obvious on the backside (see the video). We have never seen one quite like this, and it is so refined in subtle details that you can just stare and stare at it. It turned up in a small lot we bought from a mine geologist back in 2016, and sold to Alex immediately at the time. Laszlo Kupi photo.