Fluorite with Sphalerite Ex. Britt Coll.

Item Description

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A really beautiful example of a classic combination of species from the Elmwood mine, with rich purple fluorite and truly lustrous and sparkly sphalerite on a nicely balanced matrix. A richly purple fluorite (2.9cm) with multiple sphalerite crystals up to 2cm are both aesthetically perched on this thin plate of matrix which is actually a shard of rock that fell into the open spacelong ago, and was only later covered with crystallization. In that process, the rock itself was covered in minute crystals of quartz druse, giving it a sparkle, like sugar, that is hard to convey in the photos. Taken together, this is a specimen specimen! While much of the more recent (and limited) fluorite production from the mine has been of paler, less saturated crystals, this example is a classic deeply saturated purple characteristic of the heyday in the 1980s here. It is NOT just an average "example" of this famous combination , but rather a superb display specimen with a quality tha tmakes it leap out, in person, from most others in this size range. valued $1000 by the former owner.