Scheelite with Quartz

Pale apricot-cream octagonal crystals of the calcium tungstate Scheelite nestle in a wide, shallow open vug lined with sub-mm Quartz crystals from the Gelbe Birke mine near to Beierfeld in Saxony, Germany.  This old mine exploited a skarn deposit for silver in the early 1700s and is well known amongst collectors for Fluorite and Scheelite crystals.  The Scheelites measure up to 1 cm on edge and are embedded in the Quartz to where just single triangular faces are visible, while other tiny Scheelite crystals are dotted about.  The specimen does fluoresce, but not as one would anticipate.  Under LWUV the entire specimen has a dull honey-brown uniform fluorescence, while in SWUV it has a bright, patchy cream-white fluorescent, although neither wavelength highlights the Scheelite.  Nonetheless, a great miniature from this historic German locality and ex. the Josef Clemente Collection of southern Germany.