# What mineral is this cube made from? (Pictures within, but no cats, sorry.)

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-mineral-is-this-cube-made-from-pictures-within-but-no-cats-sorry/720851>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 26, 2015, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-mineral-is-this-cube-made-from-pictures-within-but-no-cats-sorry/720851 "2015-05-26T05:55:46Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\
**Post date:** [May 27, 2015, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-mineral-is-this-cube-made-from-pictures-within-but-no-cats-sorry/720851/21 "2015-05-27T20:01:57Z")

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Are all faces of the cube intact? Given that it is probably a paperweight, could it have been drilled and loaded with lead? (with the hole being plugged with a nearly matching disc of the same stone)

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**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\
**Post date:** [May 27, 2015, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-mineral-is-this-cube-made-from-pictures-within-but-no-cats-sorry/720851/22 "2015-05-27T20:14:25Z")

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> [@Orville\_mogul](#):
>
> I was going to say it looks like onyx. Did you get it in Pakistan by any chance? There are LOTS of cheap onyx souvenirs there…
> 
> (I love the word onyx. For most of my life I thought it was pronounced like the sound pigs make)

Me too! Well, not most of my life, but maybe for a year or two after first encountering the word.

Gems and minerals have been a nearly lifelong interest of mine, and I was quite young when I first started reading books on the subject, like Herbert Zim’s _Rocks And Minerals_, where I first read about onyx. In most situations, I had absolutely no problems with dyslexia, but there’s something about that particular word that leads some people to misread it as “oynx”.

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**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\
**Post date:** [May 28, 2015, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-mineral-is-this-cube-made-from-pictures-within-but-no-cats-sorry/720851/23 "2015-05-28T06:39:18Z")

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> [@Isilder](#):
>
> Thats formed in lava or vulcanism, and occurs as bubbled and balls as the heat and pressure conditions are never consistent.

You’re describing agate. The only real distinguishing feature between onyx and agate is whether the bands are parallel or chaotic.

Like I said, this could be easily solved by a scratch test (or even better, an acid test) but only if the cube isn’t coated

And **Spectre** , don’t confuse the SG of a _mineral_ for the SG of what you have there, which is a _rock_. Rock SGs can vary _quite_ a bit from their component SGs - gas inclusions, voids, oxide content etc. all introduce variability.

And you’re not going to damage anything, except _possibly_ a cube of halite, by a few seconds of immersion in tapwater…

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