Calcite (rare color and style)

Item Description

A unique, fascinating and downright incredible Calcite specimen from an unknown locality in China. I have to say that when I first saw the piece, I didn't think it was Calcite, it reminded me of a fantastic Zincite with gemmy, sharp trigonal crystals, a desirable silky luster, and with a rich orange color. The crystals have appealing, and very distinctive triangular corners with modified faces of a light matte luster. The largest crystals measure up to an impressive 1.8 cm across. Certainly, a very interesting, aesthetic and just plain different Calcite, the likes of which I have not seen before.
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.