Foolish findings

I must have been in primary school still but I remember wandering around the school playground dodging the running children and tracing the edges of the patio, peering into the soil and something twinkled. What was it? Like a magpie I retrieved the carbon-coloured nugget that resembled a small piece of scrunched up foil, brought it closer to my line of vision to examine its structure and form. I was amazed to see the cubic faces, some larger than others, they were reflective surfaces so as I rotated the framboid between my thumb and index finger its metallic lustre became striking and apparent.

It was a thrill to find something I hadn't seen before, my curiosity enabled me to value my findings and as a collector it is something you take pride in. I had a moment where I felt prosperous, potent and privileged as I had been enlightened by my discovery, its rarity also triggered a feeling of achievement. I showed my parents this object and they believed it was fools gold (a.k.a. pyrite.)

Pyrite derives from the Greek, meaning 'of fire', in the Roman times this name applied to the stone that induced sparks when struck against steel. Pyrite is an iron sulphide found in rocks and is the replacement mineral in fossils, despite 'fools gold', it is sometimes found in small quantities of real gold. In the 16th and 17th century it was used as a source of ignition in order to strike sparks, needed to fire guns. Its commercial purposes include the production of sulphur dioxide, in applications such as the paper industry and the manufacture of sulphuric acid. Pyrite is an abundant and inexpensive material in low cost solar panels and helps to make marcasite (iron sulphide based) jewellery where small pieces are faceted in silver, something very popular in the Victorian era.
What's the most interesting thing you have found?