Chromium-bearing Clinochlore (''Kammererite'') (ex Chet Lemanski Collection)

Item Description

The famous "Kammererite" specimens from Turkey are some of the most beautiful and eye-catching minerals in the world. For a time, Kammererite was a valid species, but it's now categorized as a chromium-bearing variety of Clinochlore. This piece is from the famous Kop Krom Mine (the most famous locality for specimens). This piece is an older specimen dating back to the late 1970s. It hosts several, sharp, well-formed, gemmy/translucent, rich reddish-purple colored blocky monoclinic crystals measuring up to 6 mm sitting on tiny/massive crystals of Chromium-bearing Clinochlore on minor matrix. Good quality all around, very little damage, and the main crystal GLOWS with color when backlit. You don't see a lot of these on the market anymore, and they have one of the most alluring colors you'll see in a mineral specimen. From the collection of Chester ("Chet") S. Lemanski Jr. of Browns Mills, New Jersey (https://www.mindat.org/user-461.html). Collection #18931CL. 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.