Natural Cube-Shaped Crystals

Isometric or cube-shaped crystals are one of the simplest and most common shapes found in crystals and minerals.

Its brassy-yellow colour earned this mineral the nickname Fools Gold.  Some say it came about because during the great American gold rush prospectors mistook pieces of pyrite for gold.  Whilst this may be true, we can't find much factual evidence to support it.

There are several distinctive differences between the two minerals. The most obvious (visually) is pyrite is not as yellow.  When the two are placed side by side it's quite easy to tell one from the other.

Gold is much softer than pyrite and also malleable.  That means it can be hammered or pressed into shape without breaking.  Strike a small piece of gold repeatedly and it will get flatter and flatter.  Do the same to pyrite and you'll smash it to smithereens.

Despite pyrite being much harder than gold it's also brittle.

Streak is the colour of a mineral in powdered form.  The colour of the streak in gold is golden or yellow.  In pyrite it's black often with a tinge of green.

Large pyrite cubes make really interesting display pieces.