RCU-07
Cuprite With Crystallized Silver
Poteryaevskoe Mine, Rubtsovskoe, Rudnyi Altai, Western-Siberian Region, Russia
Miniature, 4.25 x 3.5 x 3.0 cm
SOLD
This large and extremely impressive cuprite crystal is a doubly terminated octahedron, with good luster and a slight translucence. It measures 3.5 cm on a side and is colored a deep red with vibrant luster. Although complete on the display face, there is contact on the back side which makes the piece somewhat shallow in depth although it is otherwise very equant all around. Still, this is a huge, well formed, cuprite crystal. As a bonus, there are rich clusters of crystallized silver, in several places - a highly unusual association. Out of the specimens we picked from, this was one of the very few with larger (to 4mm), macrocrystallized silver in robust crystals (spinel twinned, I think) that stand upright and 3-dimensionally instead of in flatlaying dendritic meshes upon the cuprite.