Epidote

Item Description

Alchuri (Ashudi) is a well-known "Alpine"-type locality in the high mountains of Pakistan that has produced some beautiful crystals of Epidote and Clinozoisite that are quite similar to those from the European Alps. This small cabinet sized piece features a predominant, sharp, lustrous, rich golden-green colored prismatic crystal with a few additional Epidotes, free of matrix. When strongly backlit, the piece shows a bit of internal gemminess, and good pleochroism ranging from yellow-green in one direction to a dark golden hue in the other direction. A few of the smaller crystals are contacted, but overall the piece is in good shape. From the collection of Chester ("Chet") S. Lemanski Jr. of Browns Mills, New Jersey (https://www.mindat.org/user-461.html). Collection #18875CL, and the catalogue entry for the piece states that it was exported from China and imported into the United States by The Rocksmiths, and was purchased by Chet on February 8, 2001 (TGMS Show). 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.