Stephanite

This is a world-class miniature of the rare silver-antimony sulphosalt Stephanite, displaying magnificent crystals with a little attached off-cream Fluorite and rare pale granular Pyrargyrite.  The Stephanite, from the classic German locality of the Himmelfahrt mine at Freiberg in Saxony, forms as elongated greyish-silver metallic composite prisms up to at least 2.2 cm long, built from stacked smaller prisms.  The final appearance of the composite crystals is cogwheel-like, but like long pinons, thinking back to my Meccano days.  These crystals slightly taper towards their tops where they terminate with a simple flat pinacoid face.  The crystals form a jumbled intergrown cluster, although the longer crystals do tend to sit sub-parallel towards the vertical.  The Stephanite has a bright, highly reflective metallic lustre and is mounted on a clear acrylic base.  A stunning Stephanite displaying wonderful crystallisation and from its type locality at Freiberg.