BLP3 Silver on Acanthite

Porco Mine, Agua de Castilla, Quijarro Province, Potosí Department, Bolivia

4.2x 2.4x 1.1 cm

$685

(From my personal collection)

This is a spectacular specimen for the locality, a rather thick silver wire on an acanthite matrix, certainly one of the best (and very few) matrix wires I've seen for sale from the locality.

The mines at Porco have operated since the 1500's, and were among the the primary sources of Spain's silver for hundreds of years.

For all the ore that Porco has produced over the centuries, remarkably few specimens exist from the mine.  In fact, it seems that it is easier to obtain antique Spanish coinage minted from Bolivian silver than it is to obtain raw specimens, even though the mine operates to this day.    

All in all, this is an excellent specimen from a historic locality.