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Grossular - Sold


Grossular is a calcium aluminum silicate and a member of the garnet group (Grew et al., 2013). Abraham Gottlobb Werner (1749-1817) proposed this species name, as recorded in the 1811 Handbuch der Mineralogie by Professor Christian Hoffmann. The mineral name alludes to the botanical species Ribes grossularium, the gooseberry, its color resembling that of the mineral. This is the type locality for grossular, first collected there in 1790, as described by Severgin (1802).

This is a complete trapezohedron of grossular, with 24 faces. There is a contact affecting four of the trapezohedral faces. Nice example.