MOSS AGATE SILVARIA COFFIN RING SIZE 9

Moss Agate is non-toxic, water-safe, and durable enough for everyday wear. Cleanse with lukewarm water and mild soap, and skip harsh chemicals and abrasive cleaners. Crystals should never replace professional medical care.

Moss Agate forms when silica-rich water seeps into cavities and fractures in volcanic rock and slowly hardens into chalcedony, a compact form of quartz. As it sets, iron and manganese oxides, and green minerals such as chlorite or hornblende, crystallize inside the stone in branching, plant-like patterns. Despite its name, no plant is ever present; the moss is pure mineral. It is a common stone, found in India, the United States, Brazil, Uruguay, and Australia, and the gravels of Montana's Yellowstone River are among its best-known sources.

Moss Agate is a translucent-to-opaque variety of chalcedony, a microcrystalline form of quartz with the chemical formula SiO₂. It is not a true agate, since it lacks concentric banding; its green, brown, or reddish dendrites are inclusions of iron and manganese oxides or minerals such as chlorite and hornblende. It measures 6.5 to 7 on the Mohs scale, belongs to the trigonal crystal system, and has a waxy to vitreous luster.

• In his Natural History (1st century AD), Pliny the Elder listed a 'tree-agate' distinguished by marks resembling small trees, and recorded the Persian Magi's claim that the fumes of burning agates could turn away storms and waterspouts.
• In folk tradition Moss Agate became the gardener's stone: growers hung it on plows, tools, and the horns of oxen, trusting its mossy figures to call in a rich harvest and healthy crops.
• Its old trade name, 'Mocha stone,' comes from the port of Mocha in Yemen, a place long associated with the trade in these dendritic stones and the tiny landscapes sealed inside them.