Epidote (doubly-terminated twinned crystal)

Item Description

The famous Epidote crystals from the Green Monster Mountain in Alaska are certainly the most well-known examples of the species from any locality in the United States, and arguably anywhere of North America. The finest crystals from this locality are very good sized and feature thick, stout, sharp, well-formed prisms with deep greenish-black coloring. This piece is nice representative doubly-terminated crystal of this classic material with smooth, lustrous faces and some attractive striations running along the prism. If you look at the terminations, you can see two sets of parallel lines running at about 45 degrees from the "b" axis. These lines are actually the result of this crystal being a twin, which is not unheard of from this famous locality, but is not often observed in Epidote around the world. The piece is in good shape for the most part, but it's not complete on the back where it separated from the pocket wall. Overall, it's a lovely miniature and a beautiful piece of these classic twins from one of the most well-known localities in Alaska. This piece comes from the personal collection of Colorado mining legend, Dave Bergman, the maternal grandfather of Brian Kosnar. Dave is now retired from mining, but he worked for decades in various mines underground in Colorado, as a miner, mechanic, engineer, shift boss and foreman. His biggest claim to fame is that he was the foreman and the primary person in charge of mining and specimen recovery at the Sweet Home Mine in Colorado in the 1970s alongside his son-in-law, Rich Kosnar. This project what was the FIRST ever operation for specimen recovery at this historic locality. A full-page photograph of Dave can be seen mining underground at the Sweet Home in on page 58 of Peter Bancroft's book "Gem and Crystal Treasures".