McGuinnessite (rare) (ex Bob Reynolds Collection)

Item Description

A beautiful specimen of the very rare anhydrous magnesium copper carbonate, McGuinnessite named after Al McGuinness the well-known mineral collector and dealer from California, who collected and discovered the mineral. This piece is from the type locality and features attractive micro blue-green botryoidal spheres of McGuinnessite sitting atop translucent, colorless orthorhombic crystals of Vuagnatite on matrix. This is an older specimen, dating back several decades, and was priced at $500 years old on one of the old dealer labels accompanying the piece, but I would personally put it in the $1,500-$2,000 range for the size, quality and supreme scarcity on the market. From the collection of Robert (Bob) Reynolds who passed in August of 2020. Bob was a well-known fossil and mineral expert and former Curator of Earth Sciences at the San Bernardino County Museum in California. The rare phyllomanganate-chromate species Reynoldsite was named in his honor in 2011.