Galena (old rare locality piece) (ex Kay Robertson and Lafayette College Collections)

Item Description

This piece comes with an old label from Lafayette College that states it's from Bengen, Prussia (modern day Germany). Galena is reported as coming from Bengen on mindat.org, so I believe the locality information is valid, though this is the first specimen of Galena that we've seen from the locale. A full coverage of fine quality, sharp, silvery-grey colored, cuboctahedral crystals measuring up to 1.0 cm can be seen on both sides of this cabinet display specimen. The front side of the piece features more tightly intergrown crystals with a higher luster, while the reverse side of the specimen shows more distinct separated crystals with a softer matte luster. Very little damage, and really eye-catching. A must have for any Galena or sulfide collector or a fan of old time European minerals. Priced at $1,200 in the inventory. Ex Kay Robertson Collection (#9450). Kay is a prominent California collector, who specialized in European classics (see the article in the March-April, 2007 Mineralogical Record and the 50+ page article in the German Magazine "Mineralien Welt" November-December 2017).