Arsenopyrite with Calcite

Item Description

A big hefty old-time specimen from the Stari Trg Mine in the Trepca Complex in Kosovo featuring dozens of silvery-grey, metallic crystals of Arsenopyrite measuring up to 1.0 cm, which play host to a trigonal group of translucent white/colorless Calcite measuring 1.3 cm, along with a bunch of smaller Calcites sprinkled about. The underside of the piece features massive golden Pyrite matrix. The piece is in very good shape overall, with no major damage that I can find. From the collection of Chester ("Chet") S. Lemanski Jr. of Browns Mills, New Jersey (https://www.mindat.org/user-461.html). Collection #16856CL, and the catalogue entry for the piece states that it was exported from China and imported into the United States by The Rocksmiths, and was purchased by Chet on February 8, 2001 (TGMS Show). Chet was born 1947 in started collecting minerals circa 1957. He worked briefly as a drill runner at the famous Sterling Mine, in Ogdensburg, New Jersey and from 1987 to 1990 he helped convert the mine into a public access mining museum. He has held the role of treasurer, vice president and president of the Franklin-Ogdensburg Mineralogical Society (FOMS), and has been a board member and vice president of the Franklin Mineral Museum. The rare copper arsenate, Lemanskiite was named in his honor in 1999.