Fluorite (ex Chet Lemanski Collection)

Item Description

Although Fluorite is not a rare mineral from Pakistan, this particular style and color is certainly not what we're used to seeing from any Pakistani locality. This piece is comprised substantially of a complex, octahedral, pale purple Fluorite crystal group with dull surfaces on pinkish-beige feldspar matrix. The group measures 3.3 cm across. You don't see many octahedral Fluorites from Pakistan (outside of the Nagar / Chumar Bakhoor area) and purple is certainly an odd shade for any locality in the Gilgit-Baltistan area. From the collection of Chester ("Chet") S. Lemanski Jr. of Browns Mills, New Jersey (https://www.mindat.org/user-461.html). Collection #18402CL. 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.