Fluorapatite on Muscovite

Item Description

The locality as Chumar Bakhoor is known largely for producing excellent specimens of Beryl, Fluorite and Fluorapatite. The intense pink colored Fluorapatites from this locality are true classics from Pakistan, and stand out for not only their color, but their fine crystallization, gemminess and size. This piece hosts a wonderful, sharp, lustrous, hexagonal prism of Fluorapatite measuring 1.5 cm, with a light pink color sitting on a "flower"-esque group comprising light golden bladed Muscovite. The underside of the Apatite crystal might appear broken at first, but upon close inspection you can see it's actually partially re-crystallized ("re-healed"), with little basal faces that can be seen under magnification. A nice example of this distinctive and well-known material.
From the collection of Robert (Bob) Reynolds. 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.