Sulfur Italy

This is a sharp Sulfur specimen on Aragonite from Agrigento province, Sicily, Italy. It is 2.25 x 2 x 1.75 inches with a couple of large 1/2 inch crystals (even though there is slight damage to surrounding crystals). The aragonite is slightly fluorescent under short wave UV light. I know its been harder to find these sulfurs from Italy, but how valuable does that make it?
Any idea on its value?
Any help is appreciated, Thanks
-Zach

Probably less than $100 and more than $20

Rock Currier
Crystals not pistols.

Thanks, I assumed that, but that window seems a little big and doesn't really give me a good idea of its worth. Is there any approximate that's more definitive?
-Zach

Although I do not collect these specimens, I have been interested in the high quality Italian sulphur specimens because of the clever fakes produced some years ago and maybe still on the market today. Bring me up to date as to what a collector should do when buying or offered a good quality Italian sulphur specimen today. Should each specimen have a certificate of authenticity with an accompanying picture of the specimen, much like rare stamps? Is there any chance at all that the example pictured on this thread is anything but genuine? CHEERS..........BOB

The fakes have certainly deflated the market. They were all on white matrix like this one, so people are buying those with bitumen which used to sell for less. It is easier to fake a certificate than to make a Sulfur. You can spot the fakes with mass spectroscopy, they used different isotopes. By using Sicilian Sulfur you could make an undetectable fake.I am not making any comment on this particular piece. It could well be real.

Well, this seems to be genuine. The dealer I got it from was talking about how it was from an old collection and how only a few of these are on the market. Is bitumen fluorescent under UV light? Is there anything that can show if it is a fake or real? (it seems a little too flawed to be fake).
If it were to be real (which it seems to be), what would it be worth?

I couldn't tell how much damage there was from the photo, but your intuition is right. Often the clue to fakes grown from solution is that, like a perfect specimen, there is no contact or damage on the fake xls. This was true of some Mexican Chalcanthites and that was how they were outed. Some things are too good to be true.

OK, your sulfur is worth $92.17 if you sell it by next Thursday. After that the price may change.


There is really no objective way to put a price on a specimen. Everyone is different and everyone will have a different view of how much it is worth. The specimen is only worth what someone will pay for it, and since everyone is different there is no way to set a firm value on specimens. The prices estimated here are only guesses, and if someone gives you a silly price like $92.17 cents you should not believe them. A high end dealer at the Tucson show or on the internet could have the specimen listed for $400 or more. If you have access to their clients then you might be able to achieve that price. Also we are working from a photo and not the specimen itself which can also cause us to put a price on things that we might not if we had the piece in hand. The prices I estimate here are just guesses based on 40 years experience as a mineral dealer. However I will admit that more than once I have looked at specimens on dealers shelves and though, "Hey, that not a bad price" only to realize a moment later that I had not noticed the extra zero and in two cases the two extra zeros. I would imagine that most of the people that use mindat have had that experience, so how can you trust any of us. In this case you will just have to decide who to trust and who not. Are we the experts? Perhaps yes and perhaps no. An ex is a has been and a spurt is a drip under pressure. Which kind of experts are we? You will have to make up your own mind. If someone says they are an expert, they are probably not.

Rock Currier
Crystals not pistols.

Just because a dealer tells you it's authentic doesn't make it so.

BTW, I have a [insert name of really rare object here] that I can sell you for five dollars. It even comes with a certificate of authenticity that I printed.

Of course certificates can be meaningless, but as an ex-stamp collector, I remember that collectors of rare stamps had to deal with the problem of all types of fakery for many years. Faking the stamp, faking the perforations, faking the gum on the back and repairing the stamp in many other ways were all tried. As such this problem was, at least, partially dealt with by having a respected panel offer their opinion individually and collectively on stamps submitted to them by dealers, owners and buyers. There was a basic fee and additional one based on the stamp's value. The certificate had the panel's opinion and whether it was unanimous or split. It had an accompanying reference number and picture of the stamp. The panel's secretary (or whomever) kept a reference copy so anyone could check on the authenticity of any certificate issued by them at any time for a small fee. This actually worked quite well and was respected by all. Thus the stamp's "genuineness" and it's value could be set. My point is that a similar idea might work for very expensive mineral specimens that can be tampered with or doctored in many ways or even these sulphurs that have been lab created with clever isotopically different sulphur than the true Italian type. CHEERS......BOB