Crystalline gold specimens

Take a look at these crystalline gold specimens, it has a beauty and gold value all of its own.  The value of specimen crystalline gold is it is not based on spot value spot prices for gold instead it’s based on the collectors interest and the aesthetic qualities of the gold itself.

This picture is one of my favorite crystalline gold specimens.  Under a magnifier, the gold crystal facets seem to go on and on forever and sparkle almost like fools gold.  In fact it is possible to confuse crystalline gold for fools gold because they take on nearly the same shape.  One of the key differences is the richness of the yellow it’s not a brassy yellow it’s a deep golden yellow it’s the only way I know how to describe it.  It glows. The crystals look different most times unless you see cubic gold. Gold can take on several crystal structures, see this native gold article on Mindat.org site.

Of course the other aspects the distinguish crystalline gold from other types of golden crystals is it’s malleability or softness and the kind of scratch or streak testing to ensure you see the glow of gold instead of black streaks when scraped on a white ceramic tile.  Of course you don’t want to do much this with the quality crystalline gold specimens like the one shown here because it destroys value every time you scratch or ding the crystal structure.

The typical source for crystalline gold specimens is straight from the concentrated gold lode itself.  It is rare for gold to concentrate enough to create crystals of sufficient quality.  Think of it somewhat like finding large one answer greater nuggets.

This type of specimen gold is so rare that it’s typically valued at 1-1/2 to 2 times spot price so today at $1700 an ounce this could be worth up to $3400 an ounce to the right buyer.  Of course bigger specimens will go even higher.  Take a look at the Ironstone wineries beautiful 44 pound crystalline gold specimen pulled from the Harvard mine in Jamestown California in Dec 24, 1992. That story’s a gold mining legend in itself. (These types of large crystalline gold specimens are worth tens of millions!)

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Gold Prospector’s Handbook

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