Most rock shop specimens are drusy crusts of tiny black plattnerite crystals that have a nice sparkling sheen. Color is black. Luster is adamantine to submetallic. Crystals are opaque. Crystal Habits include eight sided prisms and blocky crystals terminated by a blunt four sided or complex pyramid.
Large crystals are rare and massive forms are more common.
It also forms as drusy crusts with tiny sparkling crystals. Fracture is conchoidal to uneven. Associated Minerals are rosasite , limonite , murdochite and other lead oxides. Best Field Indicators are crystal habit, streak, density, color and high luster.