Fluorite (bi-colored crystals)

Item Description

A classic example of these beautiful and distinctive Fluorites from New Mexico. They have become more and more scarce over the years; there was a time when it was not hard to find one on the market, but they are just not around anymore. This one came out of the Judith Lynn Claim and features attractive bi-colored Fluorite octahedra measuring up to 8 mm on Quartz matrix. The centers of the crystals have a lovely purple hue with an attractive green exterior. What's interesting about this piece is that some of the crystals have a visually lighter hue than the other, but they have the same color combination. It's not terribly common to find Fluorite crystals of varying saturation on the same piece like this in my experience. Most of the crystals are undamaged, but there are some small imperfections here and there. Overall it's a very attractive piece of this distinctive and beautiful material. This piece comes from the personal collection of Colorado mining legend, Dave Bergman, the maternal grandfather of Brian Kosnar. Dave is now retired from mining, but he worked for decades in various mines underground in Colorado, as a miner, mechanic, engineer, shift boss and foreman. His biggest claim to fame is that he was the foreman and the primary person in charge of mining and specimen recovery at the Sweet Home Mine in Colorado in the 1970s alongside his son-in-law, Rich Kosnar. This project what was the FIRST ever operation for specimen recovery at this historic locality. A full-page photograph of Dave can be seen mining underground at the Sweet Home in on page 58 of Peter Bancroft's book "Gem and Crystal Treasures".