Galena on Fluorite (uncommon locality specimen)

Item Description

A fairly uncommon specimen from the lesser-known Hill-Ledford Mine in Hardin County, Illinois. This older locality operated from the late 1950’s into the 1970’s according to the entry on mindat.org, and specimens are few and far between on the market. This cabinet display specimen hosts a few cubic crystals of steel-grey Galena measuring up to 3.0 cm on edge, which notable "stepped" faces in spots, which are sitting on a matrix coated by rich gemmy purple Fluorite cubes measuring up to 1.7 cm on edge. No major damage that I can find outside of the peripheral edges where the piece was removed from pocket wall. Certainly one of the better and showier examples of this particular combination that we've had to offer from this mine over the years.
Ex George Loud Collection No. 2611 Il.13; 9930 George (born August 16, 1942) is a well-known mineral collector from Washington, DC and South Carolina respectively, and was a patent lawyer by trade for over 50 years. He assembled one of the great mineral collections in the U.S., comprising worldwide specimens, and in later years he sold the worldwide specimens to focus on minerals of the United States, specifically locality suites with an emphasis on amazing representation of species while still maintaining fine quality. The specimens remarkably range from micros to all the way up to large cabinets in size. We recently acquired most of his impressive 9000+ piece collection, and the VAST majority of these pieces will be offered here in the auctions, as we feel that everyone deserves and equal opportunity at acquiring these important, well-documented and fine quality specimens for their collections.
See: https://mineralogicalrecord.com/biographies_labels/george-loud for more information