Fluorite (beautiful color) (ex Chet Lemanski Collection)

Item Description

This piece dates back to the mid-late 1980s when for a brief time, there were beautiful minerals specimens coming out of the Kara-Oba Mine. You almost never seen Kara-Oba specimens on the market today. This attractive thumbnail specimen features eye-catching Fluorite octahedra measuring up to 9 mm on edge with beautiful saturated green color sitting on Pyrite matrix. Fine quality, little damage and very showy. You don't see too many Fluorite crystals this size with such rich color. From the collection of Chester ("Chet") S. Lemanski Jr. of Browns Mills, New Jersey (https://www.mindat.org/user-461.html). Collection #18905CL. Chet's catalogue mentions that this piece was "A former Fersman Mineralogical Museum, Moscow, specimen (no label) sold at the Munich show by the Curator." Chet was born 1947 in started collecting minerals circa 1957. He worked briefly as a drill runner at the famous Sterling Mine, in Ogdensburg, New Jersey and from 1987 to 1990 he helped convert the mine into a public access mining museum. He has held the role of treasurer, vice president and president of the Franklin-Ogdensburg Mineralogical Society (FOMS), and has been a board member and vice president of the Franklin Mineral Museum. The rare copper arsenate, Lemanskiite was named in his honor in 1999.