Pyrite Sun

Measures approximately 4″ in diameter.

Pyrite Suns, also called Pyrite Dollars, Sun Dollars or Miners Dollars, are found in the coal mines of Sparta, IL. Pyrite suns or are an unusual pyrite formation exhibiting striations radiating out from the center like rays of the sun. They may look like fossilized plants, but the crystal structures actually formed deep underground under great pressure about 350 million years ago. These round disks sometimes occur between seams of coal and may be found when coal is mined, three hundred feet below the earth’s surface. The Fanned Crystal Structure is due to compressed growth between sheets of anthracite coal shale.   Although pyrite is quite common worldwide, the disk form is virtually unique to Illinois.