Fluorapatite with Opal-AN

Item Description

This is a very eye-catching, good-sized showy specimen of the famous Fluorapatite crystals from Cerro de Mercado in Durango, Mexico. These are truly iconic Apatites, instantly recognizable for their beautiful form and iconic color. This small cabinet piece features a wonderfully sharp, lustrous, gemmy, euhedral, prismatic, hexagonal crystal of Apatite with distinctive slightly greenish yellow color and a classic pyramidal termination measuring 2.3 cm along with a handful of additional smaller Apatites, associated with what was formerly known as "Hyalite" Opal, but it now classified as a variety called Opal-AN, plus a bit of Hematite on matrix. The termination on the Apatite has few little rough spots, so it's not perfect, and several of the other Apatites are contacted, but you don't see too many aesthetic display specimen with crystals of this size on matrix from this locality, These specimens are not nearly as common on the market as they were about 30 years ago, and are certainly some of the most singular Apatites ever found.
From the collection of Vasco Trancoso, a medical doctor and prominent mineral collector from near Lisbon, Portugal (https://www.mindat.org/user-11954.html). He assembled his mineral collection over the course of 60 years, and built a fine worldwide display collection that we recently purchased. This piece is pictured on mindat.org at https://www.mindat.org/photo-205712.html