Native Gold

Broad sheets of wonderfully crystallised leaf Native Gold form a 2.5 x 1.5 x 1.5 cm cluster atop a light grey matrix of micro-drusy Quartz crystals covering a massive Quartz matrix of the same colour. This remarkable specimen is from Roşia Montană in Alba County, Romania, a mountainous area containing many ancient mines, some of which originate from the Dacians who occupied this area during the time of the Roman Empire. The Native Gold is buttery-golden rich in colour and using low magnification of about x5, the surfaces of these platy leaves are seen to be covered with equant triangular crystalline growth patterns. On any leaf, the triangular crystals are all in epitaxial alignment. A first-class Native gold from Roşia Montană.