The cuprites from the Rubtsovskiy Mine in Russia are widely considered the best ever found. The Rubtsovskly Mine is an operating copper mine, and the oxidation zone has produced Cuprites, Azurites, native copper, silver, and iodine minerals like Miersite. I have been following the production for the last two years, to better understand how these are unique and what pieces stand out from "the crowd." About 95+% of the production have damage of some kind to a corner or edge. This is largely due to the miners who when extracting crystals from the kaolin clay zone (which protects the Cuprites), they drop them into their pockets, and they get dinged. 

This piece has the most native silver of any I've ever seen! Normally 'spongy silver' occurs in small patches and is viewed with a hand lens, but on this piece massive cocoons of silver inhabit one entire side of the piece. This location is unique in that this is the only location where silver is known to grow directly on Cuprite crystals (Pekov 2011). For this reason I think this is a must-have specimen as it so clearly exhibits this rare occurence! One small "rubbed" crystal on the backside, otherwise damage-free.  It weighs 3.60 ounces/ 102 grams. 

SMITHSONITE1 - Smithsonite
$ 495.00 (=~ € 462.94) SOLD NET
Tsumeb mine, Tsumeb, Namibia
small cabinet - 5.5 x 3.5 x 2.5 cm

Pink, bright, lustrous and well formed from a famous closed mine. It appears two stalactites grew alongside one another, and the smithsonite covered them completely. 

No damage. beautiful piece. from an old German collection (I snatched it in Munich). It comes mounted on an acryllic base.

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