Molybdenite on Quartz

Item Description

This specimen is labeled as coming from "Nishiko" in the Yamanashi Prefecture of Japan, and I can't find an exact listing for this locality in any database. It's possible that the piece is from the Otome Mine, though I haven't seen another from that particular locality, so it's difficult to know for certain, especially based upon the quality. I'm fairly confident that it's not from the Hirase Mine, as the style is not quite like other's I've seen from that locality. With that said, this is an attractive overall specimen featuring a 4.0 cm, lustrous, bright silvery metallic colored hexagonal group of Molybdenite, aesthetically sitting atop massive Quartz matrix. The piece originally was in the collection of famous mineralogist Richard ("Dick") Gaines, the namesake for the species Gainesite.
Ex George Loud Collection No. 4285; 2961 JA.1 George (born August 16, 1942) is a well-known mineral collector from Washington, DC and South Carolina respectively, and was a patent lawyer by trade for over 50 years. He assembled one of the great mineral collections in the U.S., comprising worldwide specimens, and in later years he sold the worldwide specimens to focus on minerals of the United States, specifically locality suites with an emphasis on amazing representation of species while still maintaining fine quality. The specimens remarkably range from micros to all the way up to large cabinets in size. We recently acquired most of his impressive 9000+ piece collection, and the VAST majority of these pieces will be offered here in the auctions, as we feel that everyone deserves and equal opportunity at acquiring these important, well-documented and fine quality specimens for their collections.
See: https://mineralogicalrecord.com/biographies_labels/george-loud for more information