Krennerite

The exceptionally rare orthorhombic, gold-silver telluride Krennerite is typically seen in specimens as dull grey patches and smudges, the sort of mineral many collectors like to disparage as a ‘grey-ugly’. Although beauty is in the eye of the beholder, this amazing, crystallised specimen might still be grey, but it’s certainly not ugly. A roughly 6 x 2.5 cm Quartz veinstone matrix has its top surface almost entirely covered in what first appears as granular silver-grey Krennerite, but is sub-1 mm platy crystals which catch the light causing the whole surface to shimmer and sparkle. There are hundreds of crystals, occasionally with a small Quartz crystal poking through or a patch of drusy Quartz peeping through from beneath. Amongst the Krennerite crystals are occasional hints of gold (i.e. the colour!) which could indicate the presence of Native Gold as micro disseminated particles or, less exotically, be a slight gold tarnish on the Krennerite. A top-ranking Krennerite which will make an important addition to any fine systematic or telluride suite.