One of the great classics of metallic minerals in all of mineralogy science and collecting both, are these fabulous, robust, striking jet black manganite crystals from Germany. They came from a single seam found and worked in the mid 1880s, and specimens are now only recycling from old collections and museums. Nothing like them has ever been found from other locations, and so they remain a classic worthy of any contemporary collection, with no equal from modern finds. This fine specimen has great luster and sharp crystals to 3 cm length, and 2 cm across the terminations. It is from the old Italian collection of Giancarlo Guglielimini, via Emanuele Marini to Gabriel Risse. It is so difficult to find old manganites, and they are 140 years old or so, that meet modern quality for aesthetics - as Risse required for his collection. Crystals here are so black and lustrous, that they are colorful and fit with other fine minerals on a shelf.