Copper crystal in leaf Copper pocket

Item Description

This item is part of a special benefit auction for the Rice Museum of Rocks & Minerals (ricenorthwestmuseum.org). Items are either deaccessions from the museum's collection or were donated by generous supporters listed below.

Auction open April 1, 2021 through April 17, 2021.

Billing for this auction will occur on Monday, April 19, for payment using PayPal or credit card. Shipping will be billed at cost, or please contact brandy@mineralauctions.com if you'd like to plan on picking up items at future shows or during a stop through Dallas.

The Quincy Mine in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan produced a great amount and variety of great Native Copper specimens and this one is nevertheless some of the most unusual we have seen, with a big and sharp crystal front and center in the middle of a "nest" of leafy plate copper that filled cracks and seams in the conglomerate deposit that was already there. To have a sharp crystal nestled within such copper is...well, nearly unprecedented in this quality. Most of the Copper in this piece is spongy textured with a somewhat hemispherical and this nest hosts a large, elongate complex crystal 3.5 cm tall (a single elongated crystal composed of two units that combine, with one measuring 2 cm and the other 1.5 cm in maximum dimension). These crystals have well developed faces and edges with smooth surfaces that have a light copper-brown patina. The crystal form seems to be highly elongated (a complete face runs top to bottom on the left side). The remainder of the Copper on this piece is composed of scaly crystals with unidentifiable forms and it displays lovely variegated colors ranging from bright copper to brownish copper to greenish, from slight patina alteration. It's a nicely composed piece with great character, locality and species significance, and a good size for collectors. (Frankly, it is a great trim job on our part, trimmed down from the 8-inch jumbly mess that it used to be, since it was mined probably 70-100 years ago.)