Fluorite (RARE locality) (ex Chet Lemanski Collection)

Item Description

When it comes to minerals from Alaska, people might think of Epidote from Prince of Wales Island or Almandine Garnets from Wrangell Island, but Fluorites are certainly RARE in terms of the number of specimens that have been found. This piece is from Kuiu Island in southeastern Alaska, and is one of the best examples that we've had to offer in the auctions. This cabinet sized specimen is filled with sharp, gemmy, soft green colored, octahedral crystals of Fluorite measuring up to 7 mm on edge, sitting on host rock matrix. The majority of the crystals are undamaged, but the outer edge is contacted where the piece was removed from the pocket wall. If you collect worldwide Fluorites or oddball locality specimens, don't pass up this attractive specimen from a rarely seen locale in the Cornwallis Peninsula. From the collection of Chester ("Chet") S. Lemanski Jr. of Browns Mills, New Jersey (https://www.mindat.org/user-461.html). Collection #0628CL. 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.