Magnetite (HUGE crystals!)

Item Description

An incredibly impressive Magnetite specimen from the Iron Springs District in Utah. This robust, hefty and dramatic cabinet display specimen features the largest individual crystals I've seen from the locality. You can see the top of the specimen hosts a pair of excellent, sharp, lustrous, octahedral crystals measuring up to a whopping 4.3 cm across, which are sitting on additional crystallized and massive Magnetite matrix. The front / display side of the piece has a little bit of roughness, and obviously the back / underside is contacted, but I forgive all of it for the simple fact that this is such an impressive example of crystallized Magnetite. Most crystals of Magnetite are rarely more than 1-2 cm, so to find a piece like this with such oversized crystals is a big deal. The piece is actually showy and displays well to boot! Most people are familiar with Magnetite as a species, but superb and large crystals are incredibly hard to find and highly sought after. For those of you who are familiar with the old time Swiss Magnetites from the Binntal, they are considered the finest and most valuable examples of the species in the world, but the crystals are much smaller than those on this specimen, so if this piece were from Switzerland, the value would be extraordinary. We had this one priced at $3,500 in the inventory. From the collection of Chester ("Chet") S. Lemanski Jr. of Browns Mills, New Jersey (https://www.mindat.org/user-461.html). Collection #20966CL, and the piece was acquired in 2003 from the Rocksmiths. Chet was born 1947 in started collecting minerals circa 1957. He worked briefly as a drill runner at the famous Sterling Mine, in Ogdensburg, New Jersey and from 1987 to 1990 he helped convert the mine into a public access mining museum. He has held the role of treasurer, vice president and president of the Franklin-Ogdensburg Mineralogical Society (FOMS), and has been a board member and vice president of the Franklin Mineral Museum. The rare copper arsenate, Lemanskiite was named in his honor in 1999. Valued at $4,500 for the size and quality.