Fluorite (rare botryoidal habit) on Quartz ''cast'' after Calcite

Item Description

Fluorite is found in virtually every color of the rainbow, along with a wide variety of crystal habits. This Mahodari Quarries near Nashik in India, are famous for producing some of the most distinctive Fluorite specimens in the world both from the standpoint of style and color. The Mahodari Fluorites are spherical / botryoidal in form, which is incredibly hard to find for the species. If you think about the thousands of localities where Fluorite is found, there are very few where this style is prevalent and none are as well known as the Mahodari pieces. This piece is a classic example of this famous material featuring a 2.7 cm sphere with a soft golden-yellow hue sitting atop slightly smoky color Quartz crystal matrix. It's important to note that the Quartz is actually crystallized, as a lot of pieces from this locality feature Fluorite on cryptocrystalline Quartz, like Chalcedony, and not euhedral crystals like this piece. The Fluorite "ball" is gemmy when backlit, and it's in excellent condition, with only a tiny bit of roughness on the back where the piece was removed from the pocket wall. When you flip the piece over, you can see there are some hollow "casts" where it formed over Calcite crystals that have since been naturally dissolved away. A very attractive example of these unique Fluorite specimens.