Galena

Despite being somewhat weathered, this specimen is crammed with interest and is from one of Derbyshire’s most evocatively named mines, Beans and Bacon. An essential element of any collecting trip to this old quarry, usually on a cold, wet and misty Derbyshire day, was to stop off at a local road-side van for a hearty bacon roll and hot coffee! Back to the specimen, the Galena forms excellent octahedral crystals of up to 1.3 cm on a vuggy and highly porous, fossiliferous limestone, encrusted with micro-crystals of Cerussite forming a white film-like coating. A great example of octagonal Galena crystals form a classic and much loved Derbyshire locality. The accompanying label records it was collected in March 1979.