Beryl var: Morganite on Albite (classic material)

Item Description

An outstanding and highly displayable full sized cabinet specimen of what are among the finest and most classic examples of Morganite ever found. The White Queen Mine in Pala has produced some of the finest Morganites from any locality, not only in the United States, but North America. Matrix specimens of Morganite are rare, not only from San Diego County, but most world localities, and these beautiful specimens from the White Queen are highly desirable and sought after by collectors. This piece features a fine, sharp, lustrous, thick, hexagonal crystal measuring 4.0 cm at its widest dimension, with good internal gemminess and a gorgeous pink hue, sitting right in the middle of lovely bladed off-white Albite var: Cleavelandite crystal matrix. The Morganite is in excellent shape, but the lower edge is contacted where it presumably grew against another crystal that was separated at some point, either underground or post-mining. Please note that the right edge of the piece has been sawn, but it doesn't take away from the overall presentation of the piece. To find a Morganite of this size, beautifully set in the center of matrix like this is not common, nor is it easy to find cabinet sized display pieces of this old (50+ years) material, so if you collect Beryls, gem crystals, pegmatite minerals, or specimens from San Diego County, do not miss out on this one. The piece comes with an old labels from Chris Wright from decades ago valued at a whopping $575, and fair market value today on this one is somewhere in the neighborhood of $5,000 - $7,500.
From the collection of Armon McPherson, a retired physicist, now living in New Mexico. Armon received his PhD from North Carolina State University in 1985, and worked at the laser laboratory at the University of Illinois at Circle Center. In the summer of 1997, Armon moved to the Argonne National Laboratory where he worked at the Advanced Photon Source, then the world’s largest synchrotron facility dedicated as an x-ray source. In 2001, he was asked to join a team at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque to conduct laser research for DARPA. Finally, staying within Sandia, he transferred to the Z Facility, the world’s most powerful x-ray facility. He retired in the spring of 2017. Armon's introduction to mineral collecting came in the 1980s during graduate school when he attended his first mineral show. He took up the hobby of faceting gems, and focused his early collection on gem crystals, and later transitioned into collecting non-gem species. We are proud to offer specimens from his worldwide mineral collection here for you.