Celestine (rare locality specimen)

Item Description

One rarely finds these beautiful old Celestines from New York on the market today. The pieces were found at a roadcut locality that literally sits off the shoulder of Route 13 about 20 miles southeast of Syracuse. Collecting alongside the road used to be allowed, but like many of these easy access localities, it's now off limits, as the local police enforce a strict "no collecting" policy, so it's virtually impossible to get new specimens. It's really a shame because these pieces are not only beautiful, but fine quality to boot. This specimen features a vug filled many alluring soft silvery-blue color, well-formed prismatic crystals of Celestine measuring up to 7 nm long on limestone matrix. Most of the Celestine are in excellent condition, though the periphery of the piece is contacted where it was removed from the pocket wall. If you collect East Coast minerals, specimens from New York or you like Celestine as a collector species, don't miss out on this one, as there won't be any more of them. From the collection of Richard ("Dick") Philip Hauck formerly of Bloomfield, New Jersey and now a resident of Franklin, New Jersey. Dick is an avid collector of minerals, books, and mining memorabilia, along with being an accomplished author in the mineral world. Arguably, his greatest claim to fame is being the co-founder of the Sterling Hill Mining Museum in Ogdensburg, NJ. Dick purchased the land on which the Sterling Hill Mine resides in 1988, and the museum has been running strong since.