CALIFORNIA GOLD SPECIMEN IN QUARTZ HOST

This neat crystalline gold specimen comes mounted in a very attractive display box and is labeled with the mine district, county, and state location.

Specimen Origin and Details: Mockingbird Mine, Mariposa County, California
Measures a very large: 50 x 27 x 27 mm
Large quartz matrix with one large "crumbled gold" area sticking out and a smaller gold leaflet lying on matrix.

About Crystalline Gold: Crystalline gold is among the rarest and most beautiful forms of gold and California Crystalline gold is especially valued by collectors all over the world because of its bright color and unique shapes.

Crystalline gold values are not based on weight but rather the shape and configuration of the piece.

The specimen(s) listed here are far more beautiful than they appear from the pictures. Crystalline gold is very hard to photograph because it is so bright and flashy, the pictures cannot begin to do the specimens any justice.

About this piece: A super nice larger piece that has good flashy mirror surfaces along with fantastic shape, incredible color and clean host rock makes it a very worthy specimen to add to your collection.

Crystalline gold is very delicate and hard to extract due to very costly mining expenses. Crystalline gold is usually embedded in quartz and other minerals and can cost, as much as, five times the price of nuggets. Some of the other minerals include: silver, pyrite and lead. The gold varies in color from deep yellow to orange and red. These samples and nuggets are not sold by weight, but by size and uniqueness of the specimen.

Origin:
Some 4 million years ago, gold was pushed up through the earth's crust to this and many other locations. However, at this particular spot, thermo steam at over 4000 degrees F. also came up, forcing crystallized gold into the quartz rock. Blowing apart the quartz, yields one of nature's rarest forms of gold -- crystalline gold. To a collector, it can be worth as much as $3000 dollars or more an ounce.