Description
Genuine raw moldavite, 0.48g, one piece only and photographed exactly as it is. This piece came out of the Chlum sand mine in South Bohemia, Czech Republic.
Moldavite is natural glass, thrown out molten by a meteorite impact in what is now Bavaria around fifteen million years ago and scattered across a single strewn field. It is found in gravel and sand beds in southern Bohemia and Moravia, with only minor occurrences anywhere else. There is nowhere else on earth it comes from.
This piece weighs 0.48g. The colour reads [your line on the colour], and the surface carries the etched, pitted skin that only forms underground over a very long time.
What genuine raw moldavite looks like
Texture is the thing to learn, not colour. Green bottle glass is easy to make, and copies are common enough that Mindat records fake material coming out of Asia.
Real moldavite has a deeply sculpted surface, full of pits, grooves and wrinkles dissolved into the glass by groundwater across millions of years. Held to the light it is usually semi transparent, and inside you can often pick out fine thread like inclusions of lechatelierite, a silica glass that never fully melted in the impact.
That is why every piece here is photographed close enough for you to see the surface for yourself rather than being asked to take it on trust.
About this piece
Every piece in this lot is photographed on its own and the piece in the images is the piece that arrives. Nothing is swapped for something similar. Moldavite varies genuinely from piece to piece in shape, colour depth and how much of the natural skin survived, so what you can see is what is coming to you.
This one is undamaged, with no chipped or broken faces, and it has not been cut, tumbled or polished. It is exactly as it came out of the ground and was cleaned.
At 0.48g it sits in the pocket stone range. Most moldavite sold in the UK starts at a gram and climbs quickly from there, which puts a first piece well over fifty pounds. A sub gram piece is a real one at a price that does not need thinking about for a week.
Traditional correspondences
Moldavite is held in traditional practice as a stone of change, usually the sort of change that is already under way rather than change being asked for. It is most often kept as a marker for the beginning of something, and it is commonly paired with the heart in the older correspondence tables.
Practice with it tends to be short. A piece this size is usually held rather than worn, and most people work with it in brief sittings rather than carrying it all day. There is a long standing habit of putting it down for a while when it feels like too much, and that is worth knowing before you start.
Correspondences are traditional and are offered as part of a practice, not as a substitute for medical or professional advice.
Caring for moldavite
Moldavite sits at 5.5 to 6 on the Mohs scale, which is softer than quartz. It is glass, so it chips rather than scratches, and a knock against a hard surface will take a corner off it.
Keep it away from other stones in storage, in a soft pouch or a lined box rather than loose in a bowl with quartz points.
It can get wet and a rinse will not harm it, though water does nothing for it either. Never use an ultrasonic cleaner. To cleanse, use sound, breath or moonlight.
What you receive
The moldavite piece shown in the photographs, reference C5, 0.48g, and nothing else. Wrapped and posted from Shropshire by Royal Mail Tracked.
See the rest of the raw moldavite currently in stock, or browse everything in raw and rough specimens.
For the mineralogy, Mindat holds the reference data on moldavite and its Czech localities, including the Chlum sand pit.
