Hydroxylherderite (''fish-tail'' twins) (ex Dr. Stephen Smale Collection)

Item Description

A cool old-time specimen of what was formerly referred to as Herderite, but now is more specifically defined as Hydroxylherderite. This piece is from the famous Golconda Mine and features attractive, sharp, well-formed "fish-tail" twins of Hydroxylherderite measuring up to 3.9 cm on minor matrix. The crystals have a light tan coloring on the surface, possibly due to some kind of alteration or pseudomorphing, but you can see very light lilac colored areas on select faces. The crystals are in wonderful condition, with no major damage that I can see. I really cool example of these classic and hard to find specimens from many years ago. Ex Dr. Stephen Smale Collection. Along with amassing one of the finest private mineral collections in the world, Steve is a renowned mathematician. His accomplishments include being awarded the Fields Medal in 1966 along with being the awarded the Wolf Prize in mathematics in 2007. You can read Steve's bio on the Mineralogical Record website ( https://mineralogicalrecord.com/biographies_labels/smalestephen/ ) or on Wikipedia.