So here is something quite special-- a specimen of copper "wires" from Michigan, mined sometime between 1870 and 1890. This specimen comes from the descendant of a miner who was able to trace his ancestor's work in the area to those dates.
Simply put, this is an incredible piece, with multiple loops weaving around each other and at one point, even coming to a junction. I have never seen another like it, and despite its relatively small size, it is the sort of piece that possesses the elegance and uniqueness lacking in even large clusters of sharp crystals.
Copper wires are considered to be one of the rarest habits from this prolific location (arguably the most important copper locality in the world) and specimens with this degree of heft and thickness are seldom seen for sale. For the sake of comparison, a 1 mm thick, 1.5 cm wire from the Osceola mine is considered "very large."
This "wire" habit is of course not the same as the ones that silver forms-- these copper wires are actually elongated crystals-- if you follow them to their ends you can even see terminations.
This is truly an amazing copper specimen