Manganite (old Classic locale circa 1880s!)

Item Description

A large, impressive example of manganite from the famous manganese deposit in the Harz Mountains of Germany: One single rich ore vein produced all the speciumens of this German classic, still considered the best in the world even now 140 years later!. This is a nice cluster of large, lustrous, striated manganite crystals up to 6 cm in length. This is a black mineral species that is good enough to fit any sophisticated collection of more colorful classics and from a historic European locality. Specimens from this locality also happen to be best of species and these finds of the late 1880s have not been surpassed since from anywhere and this piece would be from that era. The large manganite crystals are well terminated with only those on one end of the piece being incomplete. A custom engraved acrylic base is included. Similar specimens with this much size and heft, and large crystals, regularly retail for $4500-7500 when they turn up in old collections. This specimen is a compact mass of very large (to 6 cm) crystals showing classic chisel-pointed terminations and a good luster. Better specimens are sometimes available for $50,000 and up, its true (rarely), but this piece does represent the upper quality range of what is normally available as old collections are recycled, and which can be seen occasionally, usually in the $5-10k range.