Calcite with etched blue Fluorite

Item Description

A very attractive and somewhat unusual Calcite specimen from the famous Annabel Lee Mine in southern Illinois. This locality is famous for its beautiful Fluorite specimens, and while Calcites are not really rare from this mine, this piece features a lesser-seen style with soft golden colored, thin scalenohedral crystals measuring up to 3.1 cm, in an almost "jackstraw"-esque group, associated with a few soft blue colored, etched Fluorite crystals on the back. The piece is in good condition, as most of the crystals are undamaged, and a few are even doubly-terminated. The piece is actually close to being a "floater", as it's largely crystallized on all sides, though I can see a few small points of attachment. A really interesting piece to add to any Calcite suite or a collection of minerals from Southern Illinois. The specimen was collected in the 1990s.
From the collection of Chad Dalrymple