Hi. Allow me five minutes to be a nerd.
My best friend Ashley and I went to another Midwest Crystal Fest gemstone and crystal convention today, and I happened to be one of the lucky hourly raffle winners. They gave me a choice on which prize I wanted, so I chose the pyrite sun dollar (pyrite being more commonly known as fools gold). Here are a few things I found out after doing some research. These sun dollars are found in Sparta, IL where they mine for coal. They were formed about 350 million years ago under enormous pressure, and it is common to find them about 300 feet below ground between seams of coal. Nearly all of the coal mines near Sparta have been shut down, so these will start to become sparse. Sun dollars do deteriorate over time when exposed to oxygen, but how many years this takes varies depending on a couple factors. One, it depends on the moisture in the air. Moisture will break them down faster. Two, it depends on the amount of marcasite in it. The more marcasite it has, the quicker it will deteriorate. To slow this process, I purchased a floating frame display case from Fossil Era which will help give it a vacuum seal, reducing the amount of oxygen and moisture that it is exposed to (picture provided for reference).
It was such an awesome raffle win. I've loved gemstones, crystals, and minerals all my life, and I call them the trinkets of the earth. As a kid, they fascinated me. As a teenager, I decided that "rock collections are sooooo lame." Then, I got into my 20s and was like, "Fuck what everyone else thinks. Rocks are awesome." It fascinates me that they vary in shape, size, color, chemical makeup, environmental factors, amongst so many other variables, but that they all come from the same earth. It never fails to blow my mind, and although I'm no geologist, researching this stuff makes my weird little heart happy. I am always learning something new, and if there's something about a certain crystal, mineral, or gemstone that I'm curious about, I WILL find an answer.
Thanks for letting me be a nerd ❤