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pyrite - a fool's gold
Only recently has pyrite begun to be faceted and polished for use in jewelry.
With its golden sparkle, pyrite was sometimes mistaken for gold by inexperienced prospectors -- which is how it become known as "fools gold," around 1872.
The Incas as well as North American tribes also used polished obsidian for mirrors and as divination tools.
Morristown, New Jersey's public library is built on the site of an ancient Indian pyrite mine.
The state of Missouri has a town named Pyrite.
Stone used for building must be free of pyrite because pyrite deteriorates, and in doing so releases corrosive iron sulfates that discolor and destroy stone.
Nowadays, most sulfur production comes from H2S gas recovered from natural gas wells.
 magic mirror on the wall...
Like so many ubiquitous minerals, pyrite -- with its attractive gold glow -- has been used in religious practices as well as ornamentation from man's earliest days.

zoca pyrite mirror
photo: nova on-line

In particular, the Incas of Peru as well as the Aztecs of southern Mexico were known to use large slabs of polished pyrite for mirrors as well as for the practice of divination. The infrequent large crystals were polished into mirrors and used for gazing and scrying.
The medicine people of many Native American peoples in North America also used pyrite for divination as well as for healing tools and in amulets. Widespread belief in pyrite's magic power is attested to by its presence in the attire and miscellaneous objects that medicine people were known to have used.

shamanic prayer fan with pyrite & feathers
photo:sacred spiral gallery

Before the 1800's, pyrite was highly favored as a decorative stone. Its hard nature holds sharp edges and fine shapes for many years. Rosettes, shoe buckles, rings, snuff boxes and other personal ornaments were carved from pyrite.
Pyrite's biggest use occurred during World War II. Sulfur was in demand as a strategic chemical -- sulfuric acid -- and North American native sulfur mines were drying up.
Luckily, a sulfide deposit near Ducktown, Tenn. was found to contain pyrite as well as other sulfides such as pyrrhotite and pentlandite in sufficient quantities as to produce the necessary sulfur.