Fluorite with Baryte (rare old locality specimen)

Item Description

The Lead mines in Obernberg am Brenner in the Austrian Tyrol date back to Roman times according to the entry on mindat.org, and were mined until 1920, which means that this specimen is at least 100 years old. This minature sized specimen features pale lilac, zoned, cubic Fluorite crystals modified by dodecahedral faces associated with white to off-white colored crystals and masses of fluorescent Baryte on matrix. The largest Fluorite crystal measures 1.2 cm on edge. Some of the Fluorites are contacted, so the piece is not damage-free, but this is something that you almost never see for sale on the market, and if you collect worldwide Fluorites, I'll bet this is something that you don't have in your collection. From the collection of Chester ("Chet") S. Lemanski Jr. of Browns Mills, New Jersey (https://www.mindat.org/user-461.html). Collection #16131CL. 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.