Geode with Sphalerite and Quartz (ex Richard Kosnar Collection)

Item Description

Here we have a wonderful old geode from near Hamilton in far western Illinois (near the Missouri/Iowa border on the Missouri River). You don't see a lot of these on the market these days, but they were much more common decades ago. This piece features a complex group of sharp, well-formed, dark brownish-black colored Sphalerite crystals sitting on Quartz with minor Kaolinite, while the other half of the geode features just Quartz and Kaolinite. The entire Sphalerite group measures 4.2 cm long. The Sphalerite group has an odd semi-metallic reflectiveness on the surface, where you think it might actually be gemmy, but it's simply how the light bounces off the surface of some of the crystal faces. A great old-time Midwest Sphalerite specimen from this uncommon locality. From the collection of well-known collector and dealer, Richard Kosnar who was the namesake for the phosphate species, Kosnarite.