Galena with Marcasite

This Galena with Marcasite is a fine small cabinet specimen from Salchendorf in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, a mine which operated throughout much of the twentieth century, about midway between Düsseldorf and Frankfurt.  Splendid Galena crystals cover the concave crest of a coarsely-crystallised light-grey Calcite matrix, the Galena occurring as complex cuboctahedrons and occasional spinel twins, all of a light-grey metallic silver with a bright satin lustre.  Golden micro-crystals of Marcasite form rich druses over the Galena on one half of the specimen, a classic combination from this locality.  Although not recorded on the label, it is probably from the Pfannenberger Einigkeit mine at Salchendorf.  An excellent Galena with Marcasite from the Josef Clemente Collection of southern Germany.