M4200 Staurolite Crystals in Ryker Frame, Georgia
m4200-a Click to enlarge		m4200-b Click to enlarge		m4200-c Click to enlarge
m4200-d Click to enlarge

Each frame contains 10 Staurolite crystals that were collected by Ray Hill in Ball Ground, Georgia recently. When found these crystals were covered with a mica schist coating. A Dremel tool was used to remove the schist. Each frame has three to four different crystal shapes, the "cross" shaped crystals called Maltese Cross, the twinned crystals that has formed into an "X" shape, and the crystal blades. Some of the blades has an area of addition growth, or formation that causes the crystal to look like the letter "r".

Staurolite is a red brown to black, mostly opaque, nesosilicate mineral. It crystallizes in the monoclinic crystal system, has a Mohs hardness of 7 to 7.5, and is a varying mixture of Iron, magnesium and zinc. These unusual formations have been called by many names including "Fairy Cross", "Fairy Stone", "Cross Rocks, and "Good Luck Stones", "Greek Cross", "St. Andrews Cross", and "Maltese Cross".

Staurolite is light tan to dark brown in color, the natural crystal form of this mineral forms 60-90 degree angles to each other, hence the cross form. Staurolite is a regional metamorphic mineral of intermediate to high grade. It occurs with almandine garnet, micas, kyanite; as well as albite, biotite, and sillimanite in gneiss and shist of regional metamorphic rocks. The name staurolite is from Greek "stauros", a cross, alluding to the cruciform twins it displays in some cases.

Weight: 1.0 pound

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