Malachite coating Cuprite on Copper (rare locality specimen)

Item Description

This is a rare Bisbee specimen featuring a group of dozens of crystals of Cuprite showing predominantly dodecahedral and octahedral forms, which have been coated by light might green Malachite, which are in turn coating native copper underneath. I've seen a handful of these in the past, but NOTHING as dense and rich as this piece. In fact, the sheer weight of the specimen is a bit surprising, as it's nearly a full kilo! (991 grams = 2 pounds 3 oz), and you can feel the heft on the copper inside the piece throughout. This is not a pseudomorph, as you can see the internal blood red color of the Cuprites in a few contacted areas - along the copper in the center of the Curpites - it's simply a coating of Malachite over Cuprite, but I've never seen a piece with SO MANY crystals like this one. It's fun to view up close, and it actually looks pretty nice on the shelf. It's one of those unsuspecting pieces, but once you hold it in your hands and look at it closely, and realize it's really unusual for Bisbee, you truly appreciate it. It's also a full sized cabinet specimen and you can clearly see the crystals with naked eye. If you're a Bisbee fan, or a collector of secondary copper minerals, or simply minerals from Arizona, this is something unlike almost anything I've seen and is a very worthwhile pickup for your collection. I can't even begin to put a fair market value on a piece like this because it's big, it's loaded with crystals, and it's honestly the best display specimen of the material that I think we've ever had to offer. From the collection of William ("Bill") (1927-2006) and Anne (1928-2021) Cook of Cleveland, Ohio (#12771). This husband and wife duo were actively involved in the mineral world for many decades. Bill was a PhD geologist, and Anne was a mathematician, and they both were very serious mineral collectors. Bill served for many years as adjunct curator of mineralogy at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, and Anne was inducted into the Micromounters' Hall of Fame on October 12, 2019. Both Bill and Anne, at various times, served as president both of the Mineralogical Society of Cleveland and of the Micromineral Society of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, and Anne was inducted into the mi The rare barium lithium beryllium phosphate Wilancookite was named in their honor in 2015.