Description
Detailed Description
This is a beautiful cluster of twinned calcite crystals. All of the crystals exhibit promnient twinning re-entrant faces. The crystals are sharp, with a brilliant glassy lustre. They are a champagne colour, with slightly more golden hues in a couple of areas. The crystals are highly transparent. In excellent condition, the main crystal is pristine, and the only contacts/incomplete spots on the smaller crystals are at the bottom of the piece as displayed, or behind the piece and out of view altogether. You can see that there are minor limestone inclusions – a couple are entirely enclosed in the crystal and a couple are on the surface.
About These Elmwood Calcites
First opened in the 1970s, the Elmwood Mine (the Elmwood-Gordonsville-Cumberland mining complex) has produced some of the world’s finest calcite crystals, many of which are twinned. Over the years, the miners referred to the large orange Elmwood calcite crystals as “footballs”, and they referred to the clear gemmy calcites in this update as “jewels”. These are from a pocket found a few years ago. Most specimens were damaged and these are exceptional – the handful of high-quality specimens in this update are the result of a quest through many flats of specimens.
