Adamite (ex. Dr. Miguel Romero Collection)

Item Description

Adamite of this glistening, wet luster was one of the most famous products of the heyday of the Mapimi mine in the late 1970s and early 1980s. What I love about this piece is that it has TWO styles of adamite, the "balls" and also gemmy, transparent, freestanding crystals - all in a nicely protected cavity in the matrix! It is a very attractive, showy specimen on its own merits, I think fairly worth $2500-ish as a good piece, aside from the pedigree. However, it comes from the collection of Dr. Miguel Romero, which I bought in March of 2008. This was the most famous collection of Mexican minerals ever put together and is likely to remain so, and to be known as the most important collection of Mexican material, for the foreseeable future. This is not just my own opinion, mind. Please look at the Mineralogical Record's more unbiased comments here at this link to their biographical archives: http://www.minrec.org/labels.asp?colid=792. When I bought the collection from the family of Dr. Romero, I arranged to donate back 100 minerals to the University of Arizona's Museum which had stored and housed them for a decade at Romero's request. Another 100 pieces went to financial backers, and this left really only about 80 specimens for dispersal to the collector community, of which this is one of the few I have of good adamites to offer. Comes with both the University paper label and its clear plastic exhibit label - confirming that this specimen was on exhibit in the Tucson display of the museum for about 10 years, from the late 1990s until March of 2008.