|
The Rock Professor has provided you with a mineral
information card. Print on stock paper, and cut out to
enhance your rock and mineral products.
To print: with your cursor, highlight the entire card below,
right click and select print, then click on "selection"
and print.
| THE ROCK PROFESSOR |
|
|
|
PYRITE DOLLAR (PYRITE SUN)
|
Formed in the seams between black shale and coal 300,000,000 years ago, these pyrite dollars do not appear to be fossils, but an aggregate of tiny pyrite crystals.
Today, they are collected by coal miners in Randolph County, Illinois. As the Illinois coal mines are shut down one by one, these specimens will become more and more rare.
|
|
|
Chemistry: Iron Sulfide ♦ Class: Sulfides ♦
Color: brass-yellow ♦ Luster: metallic ♦ Transparency: opaque ♦
Fracture: none/conchoidal ♦ Crystal system: Isometric ♦
Moh's hardness: 6-6.5 ♦ Localities: Sparta, Randolph Co. Illinois
|
|
