Microcline var. Amazonite with Smoky Quartz

Item Description

It is exceptionally difficult to find a truly fine THUMBNAIL specimen of amazonite with smoky quartzes although larger specimens are ironically quite common. This features a fine amazonite with smoky quartzes (largest is 2.4 cm). A rare combination thumbnail that is extremely difficult to find. From Dave Bunk. Includes Rich Olsen label (#4). Back side states: “$600.00 from Cal Graeber, 6/14/2001.” Also includes Richard A. Kosnar label (#1906-N004) and index card (RSK-6), the latter of which states: “A superb TN of a mineral combination that is not only very difficult to get in small sizes but is also one of my favorites”. Purchased from Richard Kosnar in 2-24-84 for $150.00, from his wife’s Colorado T.N. collection. This piece was originally mined by Kosnar (father to our friend, dealer Brian Kosnar) and David Coil who used dental tools to extract the specimen from the roof of the “Best Pocket” discovered in June 1975, with a story that said they collected until his fingers were bleeding. On the back side of Olsen’s card, Rich Olsen wrote this on its deaccession: “Alex – one of my favorites! Rich Olsen.” Recently published in Mineralogical Record, Refined Elegance: The Small Treasures of Mineralogy, November 2022. Valued $1000-plus for its rarity and choice aesthetics.