Schirmerite

Description

10.5 x 4 x 2 cm

This may or may not be Schirmerite, from its Type Locality, as Chet Lemanski had labeled this to be, but in 2008, Schirmerite from this location may have been discredited and misidentified as Schapbachite, or Gustavite mixed with Heyrovskýite?

Schirmerite had a hardness of 2, and didn’t have a specific gravity listed for it on Mindat, but considering it’s made of Silver, Lead, Bismuth and Sulfur, it’s probably pretty dense. It was named after Jacob Frederick L. Schirmer, the Superintendent of the U. S. Mint, Denver, according to the super sleuths at Mindat.

According to AZOMining, Schirmerite “appears as a gray, lead gray or iron black textures present in granite and igneous rocks. It is an opaque, brittle, massive, granular structure having a metallic luster. It is a non magnetic and non-fluorescent mineral. The density of this mineral is 6.74 g/cm3 and hardness is 2, close to gypsum… Schirmerite occurs in the disseminated through quartz. Schirmerite is commonly associated with ores such as galena, matildite, lillianate, bismuthinite, aikinite, hessite and clausthalite.”

There’s no Quartz that can be noticed with this, as it looks like a sandstone. It’s quite interesting that it looks nothing like the other three specimens photographed on Mindat nor the one sold previously on Dakota Matrix Minerals, but Chet Lemanski put his name on it! As you can likely see if you watch closely, it is quite soft, which bodes well for this being a 2 and it being Schirmerite? For Silver, Lead, Bismuth, or Sulfur, this rock would make one cool sample for any collection!