These two crystals of Moschellandsbergite, a rare silver-mercury amalgam (or alloy) are from their type locality in the ancient mercury mining district of Landsberg in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, south-west of Frankfurt am Main. Moschellandsberg hill (now shortened to Landsberg), is within a region rich in mercury and mercury minerals, where mining began in around 1440. Because of mercury's unique property of being the only liquid metal at ambient conditions, it has been known since ancient times, and is thought to have been first discovered by the Ancient Egyptians, prior to 1,500 BCE. Moschellandsberg has produced the world's best crystals of Moschellandsbergite, two of which are mounted on mineral-tack in this small Josie-style box. Their maximum dimensions are 6 and 7 mm respectively and dull metallic, silver-beige and display crude yet easily discernible hexagonal crystal faces. One of the two crystal remains attached to a little sandy coloured matrix. Both Moschellandsbergite crystals are criss-crossed by a network of thin fractures which I imagine are the result of thermal expansion and contraction, rather than dehydration, as this species contains no water. The specimen comes with the old collection number 2142, handwritten on a old, small rectangle of paper. This shows that these were in the collection of Joseph Neeld (1789-1856). These two large Moschellandsbergite crystals are an extremely rare find from this historic mercury mining locality. For any specimens containing mercury and or mercury bearing minerals, it is a sensible precaution to always wash your hands after handling.
