Home > Mexico I – December 15 > MS1686 Cassiterite

Cassiterite - Sold


Cassiterite is tin oxide, and a member of the rutile group. While known since ancient times, it was François Sulpice Beudant (1787-1850) who coined the mineral name cassiterite in his seminal 1832 Traité Élémentaire de Minéralogie. The name follows from the Greek word for tin, kassiteros, itself derived form the Phoenician term for Great Britain and Ireland as recorded in Herodotus' Histories.

This is a crypto-crystalline globular mass of cassiterite. A bit of micro-crystallinity on its surface causes the piece to sparkle. Such specimens are called wood tin, likely a term originally used for similar ores in Cornwall. This specimen has attached rhyolite matrix on one side.