"STAR OF DAVID" SPINEL For Sale

"STAR OF DAVID" SPINEL obtained from the Mogok gem market a remarkable spinel crystal with a fascinating "Star of David" This unusual pattern was formed by two triangles on opposing sides of a central 12-sided polygon. Furthermore, the specimen was reportedly mined in the early 2000s near Pein Pyit, a village in eastern Mogok that is famous for such twinned spinel crystals.!.!. Hundreds were found in the Mogok market between 2002 and 2004, but most were tiny and broken.!!!. With a chemical formula of MgAl2O4, spinel belongs to the cubic crystal system. It is often found as octahedrons (with o faces), but sometimes dodecahedron d faces are visible. This specimen presents a fascinating case of twinning parallel to the octahedral plane O (111), commonly called “spinel-law” twinning. The general crystal outline is a 12-sided polygon instead of the expected hexagon. If a spinel crystal shows only o faces, a crystal flattened along the (111) plane will appear as a hexagon. But a spinel with both o and d faces that is flattened along the (111) octahedral plane will show 12 sides, as in this specimen.