Sulfur

Item Description

While most people are familiar with the classic Sulfur crystals from Sicily, the western desert in Bolivia is the source some of the best and biggest Sulfur crystals in the world. The Bolivian specimens are not the same habit/style as the old classics from Sicily, but rather, large bright yellow single crystals and clusters, rarely on matrix. These pieces are beloved by collectors for their size and wonderful morphology. This specimen features a very good sized, bright "canary" yellow, sharp, lustrous, gemmy/translucent crystal of Sulfur with notably "hoppered" or skeletal faces, and no matrix. The hollow growth is due to the fact that these crystals grow so rapidly that they cannot "fill in" all the way while they're growing. It should be noted that Sulfur is notorious for turning sulfide minerals black upon exposure, so keep your Pyrites, Galenas, Chalcopyrites, etc. away from native Sulfur in order to maintain their metallic beauty. For reference, this species should be spelled S-U-L-F-U-R (not sulphur) as both the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry along with the British Royal Society of Chemistry adopted this spelling in the 1990s (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sulfur#Spelling_and_etymology). Wikipedia also states that, "Sulfur is derived from the Latin word sulpur, which was Hellenized to sulphur in the erroneous belief that the Latin word came from Greek."