Epidote (RARE locality specimen) (ex Bob Reynolds Collection)

Item Description

Here we have a rarely seen and very good quality Epidote crystal from the Miracle Mountain Mine in Calaveras County, California. The specimen was collected by John Seibel a few decades ago during a specimen recovery expedition at the locale. It's certainly one of the best examples we've seen from the locale. The piece consists of a sharp, lustrous, well-formed, striated, prismatic crystal group, free of matrix. The color is a very dark greenish-brown (nearly black), but with very strong backlighting, you can get a tiny bit of color to show up on edges. The terminations on the group are all in very good shape, but there are a few scuffs and separations marks on the prism faces, so it's not 100% pristine. It's still a very respectable example of this seldom seen material, and it would make a great addition to any California mineral collection. From the collection of Robert (Bob) Reynolds who passed in August of 2020. Bob was a well-known fossil and mineral expert and former Curator of Earth Sciences at the San Bernardino County Museum in California. The rare phyllomanganate-chromate species Reynoldsite was named in his honor in 2011. This piece is accompanied by a label from John Seibel.