The orpiments from Peru and China have been overshadowed for some time by the beautiful specimens from Nevada that came out maybe 8 years ago. But occasionally, you get a killer like this that just blows you away and can keep up with even the Nevada ones. This is just an amazing Chinese orpiment. The color is magnificent, as is the candy-like luster. But, what is perhaps most striking is the elegant LENGTH of these crystals - to 2 centimeters! Further, there are only a couple of mildly contacted crystals, where so often you have a lot of bruising on these (as they are extremely soft). This is a real PRIZE for the species!
Attribution: Rob Lavinsky, iRocks.com – CC-BY-SA-3.0
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