Spinel is a lesser known gem which was historically confused with ruby and sapphire. Its popularity has grown recently but for a long time it was best known for its lab created counterparts which are widely used in the gem trade and in some some scientific and industrial applications.
While it's technically possible to grow well-formed crystals most growth methods produce rounded 'boules' which don't really look like a crystal at all. This one is a classic 'flame fusion' boule, produced by dripping molten spinel onto a seed crystal drip by drip to build it up.
Though it looks smooth at first glance the surface shimmers and is very rough to the touch. It takes a fair amount of magnification but under a 50x objective the true crystal texture finally becomes apparent, revealing the curves to be made of countless overlapping triangular crystal faces.
As they say, 'and yet a trace of the true self exists in the false self'.
Shot with my Nikon cf plan apo 50x/0.95 using epi DIC.