Aquamarine on Muscovite & Microcline

Item Description

A major and important USA matrix aquamarine specimen from a 2003 find from the "Beryl Pocket" at the famous and now defunct Cryo-Genie Mine in San Diego County. An impressive, stout, 4.7 x 3.4 x 2.1 cm, textbook hexagonal aquamarine crystal is pleasingly set on the pearlescent muscovite plates covering the microcline matrix. The glassy, light blue crystal has satin luster prism faces and a glass-clear termination face. Looking down the C-axis, the upper 1.0 cm of the crystal is gem, with the rest being translucent. The aqua has old repairs and restoration with some low quality glue used by the original collectors, not the best we admit - and this could be improved with modern techniques. In fact, most such old Cryo Genie pieces had this problem, as they were simply repaired from collapsed pockets onsite by the Gochenour brothers who mined it. So, this is a lab project for somebody, or you can keep it as is and it shows how things really do come out of the ground, particularly from the difficult California pegmatites! The mine is better known for large vivid pink tourmalines found in 2001. Comes with a Gochenour label, who operated the mine. Bob Reynolds paid $2000 for this piece in 2012. This is a MAJOR San Diego County matrix aquamarine specimen!