Fluorite Octahedron

(1) Unpolished Fluorite octahedron, please specify color preference with order.

approximately 20mm diameter

In 1852, fluorite gave its name to the phenomenon of fluorescence, which is prominent in fluorites from certain locations, due to certain impurities in the crystal. Fluorite also gave the name to its constitutive element fluorine.  Currently, the word "fluorspar" is most commonly used for fluorite as the industrial and chemical commodity, while "fluorite" is used mineralogically and in most other senses.

In the context of archeology, gemmology, classical studies, and egyptology, the Latin terms murrina and myrrhina refer to fluorite.  In book 37 of his Naturalis Historia, Pliny the Elder describes it as a precious stone with purple and white mottling, whose objects carved from it, the Romans prize.

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