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Sample from the Everest Element Set.
Up until the early 1990's a company in Russia sold a periodic table collection with element samples. At some point their American distributor sold off the remaining stock to a man who is now selling them on eBay. The samples (excepted gasses) weight about 0.25 grams each, and the whole set comes in a very nice wooden box with a printed periodic table in the lid.
Radioactive elements like this one are represented in this particular set by a non-radioactive dummy powder, which doesn't look anything like the real element. (In this case a sample of the pure element isn't really practical anyway since the element exists as a short-lived laboratory curiosity only.)
Amusingly, this ampule is labeled Kurchatovium, a name for this element which was contested until 1997 when it was replaced by Rutherfordium as part of an international settlement involving a total of nine element names and a lot of horse trading. Needless to say, since this is a Russian element set made prior to 1997, they sided with the Russian position on naming. Here is an article about the naming controversy.
To learn more about the set you can visit my page about element collecting for a general description and information about how to buy one, or you can see photographs of all the samples from the set displayed on my website in a periodic table layout or with bigger pictures in numerical order.
Source: Rob Accurso
Contributor: Rob Accurso
Acquired: 7 February, 2003
Price: Donated
Size: 0.2"
Purity: 0%
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