Baryte (fine crystals)

Item Description

The Sherman Mine was one of the best-known specimen-producing localities in Leadville, which operated from the late 1960s into the early 1980s. While it was a silver mine (mindat.org reports that over 10 million ounces of silver came out during its lifetime), the mine is probably best known for its superb golden Barytes. This piece is a choice example of this classic and beautiful material featuring many high quality, sharp, lustrous, gemmy bladed crystals measuring up to 1.2 cm, sitting on somewhat porous grey colored matrix. If you look closely, you can see that some of the crystals feature attractive internal "phantoms", and the majority of the crystals are virtually damage-free. I love how the group of crystals "flows" over the matrix, and actually hangs off the back, almost suspended in the air. The piece displays quite nicely, and the color and quality of the Barytes is excellent for the locality, creating a very desirable small cabinet display specimen of this classic material that was mined in the 1970s.
Ex George Loud Collection No. 28.3.1.1 CO.51; 10,280. George (born August 16, 1942) is a well-known mineral collector from Washington, DC and South Carolina respectively, and was a patent lawyer by trade for over 50 years. He assembled one of the great mineral collections in the U.S., comprising worldwide specimens, and in later years he sold the worldwide specimens to focus on minerals of the United States, specifically locality suites with an emphasis on amazing representation of species while still maintaining fine quality. The specimens remarkably range from micros to all the way up to large cabinets in size. We recently acquired most of his impressive 9000+ piece collection, and the VAST majority of these pieces will be offered here in the auctions, as we feel that everyone deserves and equal opportunity at acquiring these important, well-documented and fine quality specimens for their collections.
See: https://mineralogicalrecord.com/biographies_labels/george-loud for more information