Albaum - Brennhardt Thundereggs

Albaum is a very good example of a location that grows on you. Known among the collectors for being obscure and underwhelming - all too often characterized by a dull, bland, flawed core and a matrix that could be quite nice and serviceable with its red flecks. However, it turns out that there is a lot more to them than meets the eye - not least multiple locations and a lot of beauty if you can only find it. Like many 'ugly' locations, I always had the sneaking suspicion that you just needed to find the right eyes to see them and the patience to wait for the right stones to come along! The more I get involved with them, the more striking they become. They often have a kind of rough orange, pink or white carnelian, but they sometimes show agate banding and regulally have caves. They range from smallish to tiny, in the 1.5cm range - and having cut and worked some specimens, I can say that the smaller ones can sometimes show the best results - as can be seen below. Marvelous tiny gems of thundereggs!

They are also unusual in that they are drastically older than most German locations, being from the the Devonian period, or 420-360 million years old.