Crocoite with Vauquelinite (Type Locality for both)

Item Description

This rich specimen is an excellent example of crocoite and vauquelinite from the Type Locality for both species. The bright burnt-orange crystals, to 8 mm, really stand out on drusy quartz covered matrix. Also, as a bonus, you have scattered small pistachio-green blebs of the very rare phosphate-chromate vauquelinite. Discovered in the early 1800s, these are some of the oldest well-studied lead mineral species and both are lead chromates. This piece happens to be rather attractive, as well as significant and displays well without aid. From an American musuem collection, and obtained in an exchange with the Ukranian Academy of Sciences in 1973. This is probably Imperial Russia-era material.