Feinglosite, Ex. Mark Feinglos

Item Description

This specimen is part of the 2020 Dallas Mineral Collecting Symposium benefit auction, with proceeds benefiting Mineralogical Record, Rocks & Minerals, Tucson Gem and Mineral Society, and mindat.org. Thanks to all of our participants!

Billing for this auction will occur on Monday, August 24, for payment using PayPal or credit card. Shipping will be billed at cost, or please contact brandy@mineralauctions.com if you'd like to plan on picking up items at future shows or during a stop through Dallas.

A rich specimen of feinglosite, named after our friend, amazing patron and educator within the community of rare species collectors, whom we lost in 2020, Mark N. Feinglos (b. 1948 d. 14 March 2020), Professor at the Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina, U.S.A., who discovered the mineral. He discovered this mineral species in a specimen at the BMNH, thinking it was something suspicious. He then found that he had the same material already at home, present in this "unknown" piece from John Innes that he obtained in 1980 (this is half of that specimen, with a photocopy of his signed label). This specimen was later confirmed at the BMNH, as Mark notes, and also by his friend Bill Pinch. Mark trimmed his specimen and sold this bit some years ago. It has rich beige feinglosite crystals in veins, with anglesite and microscopic mimetite crystals, amid powdery adamite (?). We are not experts on the microscopic photos, so trust me it is better in person. Put it this way... when I asked him to point it out, Mark looked at this with his loupe and looked up excitedly in his characteristic way with "ooooh this is rich!" He last held this piece at Tucson 2020.
Donated by Rob Lavinsky in memory of Mark. 

Click here to view the In Memoriam article for Mark Feinglos, courtesy of Rocks & Minerals (depending on your browser, the link may download the PDF file).