Fluorite (gemmy green cubes) (ex Dr. Stephen Smale Collection)

Item Description

A lovely thumbnail sized specimen hosting gemmy, beautiful green colored cubic crystals of Fluorite measuring up to 1.7 cm on edge. The crystals form interpenetrant twin on a cube-diagonal twinning axis (rarely seen from this locality). Internally, one can see small white crystals (Quartz / Calcite{?}) which give the crystals a lovely two-tone appearance. Overall the piece is in good condition with only a trivial nicks on one of the corners, but still good quality all around. A nice example of these attractive and now fairly hard to find classics from the Xianghualing Mine. Ex Dr. Stephen Smale Collection. Along with amassing one of the finest private mineral collections in the world, Steve is a renowned mathematician. His accomplishments include being awarded the Fields Medal in 1966 along with being the awarded the Wolf Prize in mathematics in 2007. You can read Steve's bio on the Mineralogical Record website ( https://mineralogicalrecord.com/labels.asp?colid=671&page=1 ) or on Wikipedia.