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Chalcedony Specimens
Chalcedony is a very fine-grained (cryptocrystalline) variety
of the silica mineral, quartz. It has a waxy luster and appears in a great variety of colors including; blue, white, buff,
tan, brown, green, yellow or brown. It often forms rounded crusts, rinds or stalactites in
volcanic and sedimentary enviroments. It has a compact fibrous structure and a fine conchoidal fracture. Throughout the ages, many varieties of chalcedony have been used as gemstones, and many are still cut or carved and
polished today as ornamental stones. While all agates and jaspers are chalcedony, lapidaries refer only to translucent colorless to grey to white agate
as chalcedony
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Bubbly white chalcedony that I collected back in the early 90s north of the small town of Hartsel, Co. At the time
I was looking for blue agate, which I only found one piece of, but I found a bunch of this material as well as some brown
moss agate a little further on down the road. Approx. size: 69x30x38 Weight: 78.5 grams
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Nice little piece of snakeskin agate from the Mojave Desert in California. This material is usually found
in smaller nodules that are great for putting into a rock tumbler. When polished, the bumpy outer surface
produces a unique pattern resembling the scales on a snake. This is a somewhat larger than normal piece that had a couple
of chips when I obtained it, but they are on the bottom and actually make the piece stand up nice and straight. Inside,
this material is typically opaque white to translucent grey. Approx. size: 43x28x34 Weight: 59.7 grams
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Very interesting piece of plume agate from the classic location of Graveyard Point, Oregon that really resembles a piece
of coral or something that you would find under the sea. While I thought this particular piece made a better specimen
than cutting rough, it can still be cut up to produce many, many smaller cabochons. Approx. size: 70x43x40 Weight:
155.6 grams
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Novel piece of bubbly chalcedony collected near Harsel, Colorado. Approx. size: 75x58x50 Weight: 152.3 grams
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