Mercury, Cinnabar

This is one of the richest native mercury specimens that I've seen! The front of this specimen exposes a quartz-cinnabar vein with a wide opening that is stuffed with native mercury between the crystals. If you look closely at the mercury, you can see that is is largely balls of liquid mineral. The ONLY liquid mineral! Of course, this specimen comes from the famous Almaden Mine, which has been mined for millennia, since the time of the Romans!