Cancrinite (rare pink color) (ex Chet Lemanski Collection)

Item Description

Cancrinite is a feldspathoid species, and the namesake for its own mineral group. The complex silicate species was found in 1839 and was named after Count Yegor Frantsevich Kankrin (also known as Georg Ludwig Cancrin), who was a German-Russian politician and economist, responsible for reforming the Russian financial system in the early 1800s. He was also the son of the noted German mineralogist, Franz Ludwig von Cancrin. The species is found in a fairly wide range of colors, but this piece is notably PINK, which is quite rare for Cancrinite in my experience. The piece is essentially a massive chunk, with no discernible crystal faces, but the rare pink hue makes it enticing. It's also from a fairly obscure locality, the Nephton Quarry in Peterborough County, Ontario, Canada. I found a reference to one other Cancrinite specimen from this locality on mindat.org, so they must be rather rare. An interesting and esoteric specimen for anybody interested in feldspathoid minerals or odd locality specimens. From the collection of Chester ("Chet") S. Lemanski Jr. of Browns Mills, New Jersey (https://www.mindat.org/user-461.html). Collection #2937CL. Chet was born 1947 in started collecting minerals circa 1957. He worked briefly as a drill runner at the famous Sterling Mine, in Ogdensburg, New Jersey and from 1987 to 1990 he helped convert the mine into a public access mining museum. He has held the role of treasurer, vice president and president of the Franklin-Ogdensburg Mineralogical Society (FOMS), and has been a board member and vice president of the Franklin Mineral Museum. The rare copper arsenate, Lemanskiite was named in his honor in 1999.