Auction Win: Gypsum var. “Ram’s Horn” Selenite with Nováčekite (Fluorescent and Phosphorescent)

Locality: Santa Eulalia Mining District, Aquiles Serdán Municipality, Chihuahua, Mexico

Size: Cabinet - 10 × 7 × 5 cm

An aesthetic piece of “Ram’s Horn” Selenite that can be displayed any number of ways. It fluoresces and phosphoresces. This piece is valued around $80.

Selenite is the transparent variety of gypsum, a mineral with the chemical formula CaSO4·2H2O, first named by J.G. Wallerius in 1747 from the Greek word for "moon" due to its pale, moon-like reflections. This clear gypsum is commonly used in drywall and plaster, making it a familiar material in home construction.

Santa Eulalia Mining District in Aquiles Serdán Municipality, Chihuahua, Mexico, is one of Mexico’s chief silver and base metal producers with over three centuries of nearly continuous production since 1703, yielding more than half a billion troy ounces of silver and nearly 6 million tonnes of lead and zinc. Geologically, it is the largest Carbonate Replacement Deposit in a 2200 km belt stretching from Hidalgo to the U.S. border and is renowned for massive sulfide manto and chimney orebodies in the West Camp and intrusion-cored skarns in the East Camp. The district has produced world-class specimens of hemimorphite, willemite, bromargyrite, pyrite, calcite, goethite, and selenite, making it a premier locality for collectors seeking exceptional zinc, silver, and iron minerals. Its rugged topography, deep canyons, and rich mineral diversity continue to attract serious mineral enthusiasts and researchers today.