New at Rosetta Stones: Fools for Fool’s Gold!

It’s April Fools’ Day in many countries, and to celebrate, I’ve finally remembered to do up some research on pyrite! But it turned out so unbelievable, I decided I’d better not publish it today. So we’ll start with some famous fools fooled by fool’s gold. We’ll get to the really wild stuff I found out next week, when you might be more inclined to believe me!

And thee shall have a picture of lovely dolomite, pyrite, and quartz to boot.

Image shows a white and transparent rock with beautiful bits of pyrite shining in it.

“Quartz with Pyrite inclusions and Dolomite.” Image courtesy Rob Lavinsky, iRocks.com (CC-BY-SA-3.0)
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New at Rosetta Stones: Fools for Fool’s Gold!
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3 thoughts on “New at Rosetta Stones: Fools for Fool’s Gold!

  1. 1

    When I was a little kid, I found a piece of pyrite the size of my fist in the backyard. I excitedly took it to my father, who explained to me what pyrite was, and about the people who’d been fooled by it over the years. It may not have been our ticket to wealth, but it was a great treasue for a little kid, and a pretty cool educational moment. I still have it on my bookshelf.

  2. rq
    2

    I read the article and I loved it, and had a few good laughs at the expense of those foolish fools fooled by the fool’s gold.
    I have a special relationship with pyrite, as it is one of the first rocks/minerals I learned to recognize in the wild – that and quartz, apatite and pink granite, the Top 4. Oh, and mica. I grew up in the vicinity of some old mica quarries which still had large piles of waste rock beside the old holes, and these were awesome for rock hunting and finding all kinds of wondrous objects. There’s still a fine collection of the larger and better specimens lining the garden at Ye Olde Housse.

  3. 3

    Do the Conquistadors like the expeditions of Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, Francisco Vásquez de Coronado and Francisco de Orellana among others count? They went searching for rumours of gold and particularly the mysterious cities* thereof (aka Cibola which turned out to be a Zuni pueblo or six) and many died and suffered greatly in that obsessive, brutal, destructive quest.

    * See :

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mysterious_Cities_of_Gold

    Which was a classic 1980’s SF cartoon I adored as a kid and, hell, okay, is still compulsory nostalgic viewing for me as its being replayed (again) on Aussie TV today. Music still echoes in my bones.**

    Incidentally, on reading the source novel The Kings Fifth’ by Scott O’Dell then doing a bit more research on wiki it turns out the inspiration for the character Esteban is a remarkable but (probably?) tragic historical figure with a grimmer story – who really should’ve been portrayed as a brown-or black skinned man. Because that’s what he was :

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estevanico

    ** Hear :

    https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4AEBC6B8BFF61149

    For the full playlist. FWIW, my faves would be ‘The Winged Serpent’, ‘Seafaring’ & St Elmos fire a.k.a. The Song of Mysterious Awesomeness’ as someone on youtube aptly titles it.

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