Beryl inside Beryl (large specimen)

Item Description

There are numerous pegmatites in Custer County, South Dakota, but good crystallized specimens are seldom seen on the market, especially larger piece. This hefty piece was only identified as coming from "Custer" with no specific mine, so if any South Dakota experts have some insight as to where it specifically might be from, please let us know. It's possibly from the Tip Top Mine, but this is only a guess.  The piece is a rather large, thick, blocky, robust, crystal of off-white to very light blue colored Beryl on the exterior, but if you look towards the center, you can see there is a bit of Quartz and Mica which are actually coating another formation of light blue Beryl in the center! Looking down the "c" axis, you can clearly see the hexagonal shape of both the interior and exterior Beryl crystals. The piece is not damage free, as it's broken on both ends, but it still shows excellent prism faces around the exterior sides, and I think it's a very impressive piece that would fit beautifully into a pegmatite mineral collection or a suite of Beryls. You likely won't see another one of these anytime soon, so don't miss out. The piece is a bit hefty, weighing in at 1,110 grams (2 pounds, 7 ounces). From the collection of Colorado mining legend, Dave Bergman. Dave actually self-collected this specimen while on a field collecting trip in the 1970s. Dave is now retired from mining, but was formerly the foreman and primary person in charge of recovering specimens at the famous Sweet Home Mine near Alma, Colorado during the late 1970s, and the maternal grandfather of Brian Kosnar. See Dave's photo mining at the Sweet Home on page 58 of Peter Bancroft's book "Gem and Crystal Treasures".