Native Silver

This large thumbnail of twisted and curled wires of Native Silver is from the Gonderbach mine, some 7 km southwest of Bad Laasphe in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.  This old silver mine closed in 1939 and specimens are rarely encountered.  The wires form a coiled snake-like structure with a head rearing up above.  The overall dimensions are roughly 1.8 x 2.0 x 2.2 cm.  There is no matrix attached and the Native Silver has tarnished to a sooty black but still shows silver coloured speckles with a metallic lustre.  It is accompanied with a nicely printed old label from the collection of Prof. Dr V. Goldschmidt no less!