Native Silver

A remarkable museum-quality specimen of superbly crystallised Native Silver on Calcite from Wenzel mine in the Frohnbach Valley of the Black Forest region of Germany.  Dendritically crystallised Native Silver does not get much better than this!  The overall shape of this wonderful miniature is cubic, with the Silver crystallising in lines parallel to each other and to the geometry of the Calcite matrix.  For those of you familiar with Star Trek and the Borg Collective, this specimen’s shape and structure is like that of a Borg Cube but, thankfully, not at all scary!  Individual crystals typically measure to over 2 cm long and side-branching crystals exit the mains ‘stems’ at 90 degrees. All the Native Silver crystals stand well proud of the Calcite matrix which, where exposed, is salmon-pink to off-cream.  Many parts of the crystallisation beautifully display three levels of branching, with the long Silver crystals joined horizontally by extended side branches which in turn have sub-vertical branches aligned to the primary crystals!  It is magnificent and is destined to reside in a fabulous collection.