Cerussite

A superb specimen of jackstraw Cerussite from the rare location of Snailbeach mine close to Shelve in Shropshire, England. We very seldom see specimens from this mine, with them only turning up only very occasionally, say once every few years. The specimen displays fine richly intergrown Cerussite crystals with clusters of parallel growth and individual crystals reaching a length of 5.5 cm. Many of the Cerussite crystals are lightly dusted in a thin film of tan-brown Goethite. A fine and rare jackstraw Cerussite from Snailbeach mine, with a splendid old card label titled “Carbonate of Lead”. For those of you unfamiliar with this unusually named mine, there may well be snails in the vicinity but there is certainly no beach. This enigmatic name remains a mystery and is believed to date back to Roman times.