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Calcite Rhombs, Doubly Refractive, Polished
Item Stock Number: 1001
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A polished rhombohedron of calcite. |
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A polished cleavage rhomb of calcite showing good transparency. |
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A polished cleavage rhombohedron showing its doubly refractive (doubbling) nature. |
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A fairly transparent polished cleavage rhomb of calcite. |
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Price Range: $4.00 to $12.00 Average Price: $6.00
We offer rhombs from $4 to $12 with most of them being $4 to $6 your cost and the specimens measure about 1.25 inches across. The more expensive they are, the more transparent the calcite. We have a few other larger ones that might be as high as $50 each. All prices given here are approximate, each specimen is priced individually depending on its quality.These rhombohedrons are shaped like cubes except that they have been tweaked a little "off center". Large rhombohedrons can be broken into smaller ones and the smaller ones can be broken down into microscopic ones and so on right down to the atomic level.
In addition to beautifully demonstrating cleavage in minerals, transparent calcite has an interesting optical effect called double refraction that is found in many but not all minerals although in calcite this effect is exaggerated and can be seen very easily in small specimens. This makes everything seen through transparent calcite appear double. In some of the images associated with this offering you can clearly see this effect. Millions of words have been written about calcite and if you Google "calcite" you will see what I mean.
The calcite we are offering here is from Bolivian border area with Brazil. Large crystals of calcite have been carefully broken into cleavage rhombohedrons and polished. This is not as easy as you might imagine. The results are cleavage rhombs that preserve the natural angles of the cleavage faces and show to best advantage its doubly refractive nature (doubling effect).
The rhombs are of somewhat different sizes and qualities and sizes and are priced accordingly. We offer rhombs from $3 to $20 with most of them being $4 to $6 your cost and measure about 1.25 inches across. The more expensive they are, the more transparent the calcite. I don’t think any of them are completely transparent, though you will have to look hard at some of them to find the flaws. If they were of truly optical grade, the cost would be five to ten times more than they are.