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November 2007 Page 2
Enjoy !!
No.
Pold TN
8071
From the significant find from around 2001, this piece is one of
the best thumbnail size specimens of this amazing material that I have
seen. Before this discovery, Poldervaartite was often known as opaque,
cream-colored aggregates, and the new discovery yielded incredibly
gemmy, rich orange-red color specimens. This full-size thumbnail
specimen features a remarkably rich orange-red color, gemmy, lustrous,
spherical aggregate associated with a smaller peach-colored aggregate of
equal quality on matrix. The piece displays very well, and truly is as
fine of quality as I have seen for the species. It seems as though these
specimens have disappeared from the market rather quickly, and after my
recent trip to Munich, this piece is very competitively priced compared
to many inferior specimens that were available for sale at the show.
Locality: N'Chwaning I mine, Kalahari Manganese Fields,
Northern Cape Province, South Africa Specimen Size: 3.0 x 2.1 x 1.5 cm.
No. Amaz TN 8075 Simply put, the finest Amazonite crystals in the world are
found in around the Pike's Peak Batholith. The area has continued to
produce fine quality crystals for the better part of a century. Here we
have a wonderful cluster of blue green color Amazonite crystals which
are complete on all sides. The crystals resemble a cityscape with each
crystal ascending just a little higher than the last. A lovely thumbnail
of this well known material. Locality: Qui-Buc No. 1 Claim, Park County, Colorado Specimen Size: 2.7 x 2.5 x 2.1 cm.
No. Amaz TN 8076 Simply put, the finest Amazonite crystals in the world are found in around the Pike's Peak Batholith. The area has continued to produce fine quality crystals for the better part of a century. Here we have a wonderful cluster of prismatic, blue green color Amazonite crystals which are complete on all sides. It was found in the 1990's at the well known Qui-Buc Claims which produced some very good quality Amazonites for a short time. A lovely thumbnail of this well known material. Locality: Qui-Buc No. 1 Claim, Park County, Colorado Specimen Size: 2.8 x 2.2 x 1.6 cm.
No.
Amaz TN 8073
Simply put, the finest Amazonite crystals in the world are found
in around the Pike's Peak Batholith. The area has continued to produce
fine quality crystals for the better part of a century. This is a
somewhat hard to find association piece with three species together on
the same specimen. It features a pair of sharp, rich blue-green crystals
with classic, and rarely seen "white caps", which are actually an
overgrowth of another Feldspar species. The Amazonite are associated
with a few gemmy, light colored Smoky Quartz crystals and a small
"rosette" of white bladed Albite (var: "Cleavelandite") on the side. The
color in this piece is very deep for crystals this size, so don't miss
out on this little beauty. Locality: Lake George, Park County, Colorado Specimen Size: 2.2 x 2.1 x 2.1 cm.
No.
Gal TN 8072 A wonderful old classic Galena with attractive cuboctahedral
form. I think it is interesting to see the selectivity of the
modifications as they do not occur on every corner of the cube, but
actually alternate from corner to corner. It is amazing to think how
many Leadville specimens were on the market as recently as 10 years ago
(my father literally had thousands of them), and now they are becoming
increasingly difficult to obtain. This piece would fit very well into a
Leadville suite, a worldwide Galena collection, or any thumbnail
collection. Locality: Black Cloud Mine, Iowa Gulch, Leadville, Lake County,
Colorado. Specimen Size: 2.6 x 1.8 x 1.6 cm.
No.
Cu NM TN 8071 A very dramatic and bright Copper crystal group featuring multi-layered Spinel-law twinning and small dodecahedral crystals in between the arborescent "branches". It appears that somebody decided to brighten this piece up and remove the natural patina. Nonetheless, it is a highly aesthetic specimen and completely crystallized all the way around. With so many Chino pieces that have come out in recent years, I think this one truly stands out due to its obvious visual appeal. Locality: Chino Mine, Santa Rita, Santa Rita District, Grant Co., New Mexico Specimen Size: 2.4 x 2.4 x 1.4 cm.
No.
Pyr UT TN 8071 An exquisite thumbnail of this classic material featuring razor-sharp, dramatic, modified cubes and pyritohedra with bright metallic luster which are associated with unusual, grey, spherical aggregates of Tetrahedrite. I remember when Dave Bunk had these specimens, and being the enthusiast of metallic minerals that I am, I was very impressed by the best of these pieces that I saw. Truly, this is the best thumbnail of this material that I've encountered, and for a Pyrite, this is a real stunner considering the quality and aesthetics are as good as it gets. I do not mean to gush over this piece, but I was very impressed when I obtained it, and I think it actually looks better in person than the photos indicate. Locality: Daly-Judge mine, Park City, Summit County, Utah. Specimen Size: 2.3 x 2.1 x 1.1 cm.
No.
Tenn TN 8071 For all the secondary ore minerals that are found at Tsumeb, the
sulfides can sometimes get lost in the mix. The largest Tennantite
crystal that I've ever seen actually came from Tsumeb. In my experience,
thumbnails of Tennantite from Tsumeb are not terribly common. This piece
features a trio of sharp, semi-lustrous, tetrahedrons of Tennantite on a
small bit of matrix. Two of the crystals are contacted, so it's not a
competition quality thumbnail, but still a good piece for this material. Locality: Tsumeb mine, Tsumeb, Otjikoto Region, Namibia Specimen Size: 2.6 x 2.2 x 1.8 cm. Largest Crystal: 1.5 cm.
No. Qtz AZ TN 8071 Pictured in Mineralogical Record, Volume 19, Number 2, Page 85, Figure 12 The Iron Cap mine is probably best known for producing some of the most extraordinary (yet limited), gem/gemmy vibrant green Sphalerite crystals extant. Iron Cap Quartz specimens are also very interesting, and are some of the most distinctive and attractive Quartz specimens from any U.S. locality. I especially like the fact that they feature pseudo "Beta" habit crystals (they have a tiny prismatic face in areas), yet they are stacked upon one another creating a pseudo-prismatic form. This piece is probably one of the most famous Iron Cap Quartz specimens because it was the only one pictured in the excellent article on the mine written by Wendel Wilson in the Mineralogical Record in 1988. The specimen is in great shape overall, and is very attractive for this material. A wonderful display piece from this classic Arizona locality ! Locality: Iron Cap Mine, Landsman Camp, Aravaipa District, Pinale–o Mts, Graham County, Arizona Specimen Size: 2.3 x 1.3 x 1.2 cm.
No.
Epi Ken TN 8071 These Kenyan Epidotes started showing up on the market around
2002, and they almost disappeared as quickly as they arrived. They are
superb quality crystals from any locality, but definitely attracted more
attention because they came from Kenya. Even though many of the crystals
from this find were very good sized, not all of them were the finest
quality. This piece is one of the best quality crystals I've seen from
this find from the standpoint of sharpness and luster. The main crystal
has a very interesting pseudo hexagonal termination like a Tourmaline,
which is very unusual in my experience. When the piece is strongly
backlit, you can see a small zone of the deepest, richest vanadium green
color possible for an Epidote. Epidote is one of my favorite minerals,
and if you're a fan of these specimens, I think this piece is a great
buy for the size and quality. Locality: Northern Frontier District, Kenya Specimen Size: 2.9 x 1.6 x 0.9 cm.
No.
Born TN 8071 A very attractive cluster of sharp lustrous Bornite crystals with a
beautiful iridescent patina. These pieces have quickly dried up on the
market, and you do not see many of them for sale anymore. I had a hard
time photographing this piece, mostly because it's hard to decide which
side is the best "display" side. Locality: Dzhezkazgan, Dzhezkazgan Oblast', Kazakhstan Specimen Size: 2.5 x 1.6 x 1.3 cm.
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