Calcite (fine quality) (fluorescent)

Item Description

An outstanding and impressive example of the classic Wessels Calcites featuring beautiful gemmy rhombs with deep orange fluorescence under SW UV light. This group is certainly one of the best I we've offered in the auctions, as the crystals have enough size and separation to be appreciated individually, with impact for their geometries. The crystals are well-formed and rather gemmy, with optical colorless quality. The largest of the rhombs is 5.0 cm across, fantastic size for the locality - and outside of a few small imperfections, they are notably undamaged. One of the crystals is even twinned, with the rare ''winged'' overgrowth I have seen on few other twinned calcites. The piece shows a really interesting fluorescence under SW UV light, as only the interior portions of the crystal fluoresce with a VIVID ORANGE hue! This is a great display cabinet specimen from a famous locality, from the major finds of the 1980s. It is valued at $2,500. Better in person.
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.