"Thanks to everyone for all the good info! I do appreciate it, and I'm sorry to say, that I think all I have is pyrite! oh well...happy hunting!

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"Interesting enough pyrite is sold in jewelry and is called by t stores as Marcasite. Marcasite is similar to pyrite but it is not chemically stable. When exposed to air and moisture it sometimes decays into sulfuric acid. It will destroy the specimens in a case. I have a friend who wrapped marcacite in jewelry and ruined the silver. Marcasite often has a sulfur smell and crumbles more easily than pyrite. Marasite is not used in jewelry despite the name in the jewelry store. The same is true of many gemstones. Sunstone is fieldspar but the "sunstone" name sounds more expensive. Jasper is a catch all term for impure silica from colored cherts to opaque chalcedony. Green turquoise is generally varasite and not turquoise. Colored quartz crystal has a half dozen jewelry names from amethysts to rose quartz. Jewelry stores often call banded calcite or aragonite "onyx". Although true onyx is a chalcedony often used to carve cameos. Believe it or not Jade is a name for two completely different minerals. All kinds of colorful names are given to gemstomes that have no relationship to what the stone is. There is paint rock, picture jasper, tanzanite, moonstone, blood stone, wonder stone, Picasso stone, petoskey stone, mozarite, pom pom agate, Mexican lace agate (which is not in the scientific sense of the term an agate at all)and the list goes on. So you see there is a lot of "Fools Gold" other than pyrite. Hope you find a wash bucket full of real gold.
Bill
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