Estibina
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Estibina is a mineral with formula Sb₂S₃, in the Sulfuros group. This specimen comes from Baia Sprie Mine, Baia Sprie, Maramureș, Transilvania, Rumanía.
Description
Very old glass vial with a cork stopper, containing ten acicular stibnite crystals inside. Thin, elongated, metallic-gray crystals, preserved as historical reference material rather than an aesthetic matrix piece.
History of this specimen
Specimen preserved in an antique vial with a label from the K.S. Mineralien-Niederlage zu Freiberg, linked to the Saxon mineralogical tradition of Freiberg. The label uses the historical toponym "Felsőbánya", the Hungarian name for present-day Baia Sprie, consistent with a provenance prior to or near the end of the Austro-Hungarian period in the region.
About Estibina
Stibnite is the classic antimony ore and one of the most recognizable metallic sulfides due to its elongated, fragile crystals with a steel-gray luster. It frequently appears in historical collections as a teaching mineral, as it perfectly encapsulates the relationship between crystalline form, metallurgy, and old European networks of scientific exchange.
About the locality
Felsőbánya is the former Hungarian name of what is now Baia Sprie, in Maramureș County, Romania. This region of Transylvania was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire until the Treaty of Trianon in 1920, after the First World War, when it became part of Romania. This fits perfectly with the dating of the label, 1880–1920.
Technical data
- Catalogue No.
- 0677
- Composition
- Sb₂S₃
- Name
- Estibina
- Group
- Sulfuros
- Category
- Meritum Persé
- Mine
- Baia Sprie Mine
- District / Municipality
- Baia Sprie
- Province
- Maramureș
- Region
- Transilvania
- Country
- Rumanía
- Ex-collection
- K.S. Mineralien-Niederlage zu Freiberg
- Etymology
- Con dos mil años de historia, el nombre de la estibina evolucionó del griego platyophthalmos («ojos brillantes», por su uso cosmético) al latín stibium, origen del símbolo Sb. Siglos después surgió anti-monio, ligado a la leyenda apócrifa de los alquimistas «mata-monjes»
- Quality
- Notable
- Value trend
- Estable
Related specimens
- Oropimente — China
- Esfalerita (Marmatita) — Rusia
- Estibina — Rumanía
- Estibina — Rumanía
- Realgar — Rumanía
- Pararealgar — Rumanía
- Galena — España
- Goethita — España