Acanthite

Rounded, metallic grey crystals of Acanthite measuring to 1.2 cm overgrow, and are partly embedded, in a matrix of crystalline Calcite from the old Gesegnete Bergmannshoffnung mine (closed around 1898) in Erzgebirge, Saxony, Germany. The Acanthite, a silver sulphide, forms rich crystallised mounds whose surfaces display rounded, rather hazy terminations and partial crystal faces; possibly ‘blurred’ by fluid-cutting by fast ground water-flow. The specimen is accompanied with an old German, beautifully handwritten label.