Celestine (great color) (New Find - 2023)

Item Description

A lovely Celestine specimen from a new discovery in mid 2023. This find produced unlikely richly colored blue Celestine crystals from the Badghis Province of Afghanistan. This locality lies far to the west of the more traditional specimen-producing provinces like Kunar, Nuristan, Laghman and Badakhshan. These specimens feature excellent crystals with a stronger than average color for the species, and they have formed atop beautiful golden-yellow Calcite for a stark contrast of color. This piece host a few rather sharp, well-formed, gemmy, strong "steel" blue colored prismatic crystals of Celestine measuring up to 2.7 cm, sitting on micro-crystallized soft golden colored Calcite matrix. The crystals are in good condition, but I will point out that there are some separation marks around the periphery where the piece was removed from the pocket wall. A very attractive and certainly desirable specimen for any fan of minerals from Afghanistan or worldwide Celestines. I doubt many of you have one of these in your collection, so don't miss out, as we don't know how many more there will be going forward.