Corundum var: Ruby

Item Description

Here we have an attractive representative example of the well-known Ruby specimens from Aliabad, Pakistan. This small cabinet piece came out of the ground in the early 2000s and features purplish-pink colored, translucent, hexagonal crystals measuring up to 1.0 cm on off-white Calcite/marble matrix. A few scattered pseudo-metallic golden bladed crystals of Phlogopite can be seen in a few spots. The piece shows good fluorescence under UV light.
From the collection of Chester ("Chet") S. Lemanski Jr. of Browns Mills, New Jersey (https://www.mindat.org/user-461.html). Collection #18851CL. 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.