Fluorite (rare botryoidal habit) (ex Chet Lemanski Collection)

Item Description

Fluorite is one of those species that occurs in a wide variety of crystal habits, but one of the rarest habits for the species is botryoidal / spherical. In the early 2000s, there was a discovery of these unusual botryoidal Fluorites in Mogok, and they quickly disappeared from the market. This piece is a good representation of the material featuring many "balls" of beautiful purple Fluorite measuring up to 7 mm across on minor matrix. Most of the Fluorites are undamaged, though there is some roughness in certain areas on the periphery where the piece was presumably detached from the pocket wall. From the collection of Chester ("Chet") S. Lemanski Jr. of Browns Mills, New Jersey (https://www.mindat.org/user-461.html). Collection #18323CL. 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.