Home > Mexico I – December 15 > MS1693 Smithsonite
Smithsonite - Sold
- Mina San Antonio
- Santa Eulalia
- Chihuahua
- Mexico
- 2.1 × 1.9 × 1.2 cm – Thumbnail specimen (fits into a 2.5 cm cube)
Smithsonite is zinc carbonate, and a member of the calcite group. François Sulpice Beudant (1787-1850) dubbed this mineral smithsonite in his seminal 1832 Traité Élémentaire de Minéralogie. The mineral name honors James Smithson (1765?-1829), an Englishman who never visited the United States, but nevertheless founded the Smithsonian Institution with a gift of his mineral collection and cash. Smithsonite is characteristic of zinc bearing deposits, itself typically botryoidal and occasionally confused with similarly appearing hemimorphite.
Rice grain smithsonite crystals to 8 mm perch on the edge of a limonite matrix. The smithsonite is light green, presumably indicating copper in substitution for zinc in its crystal structure.