Paralstonite (incredibly rare) on Calcite

Item Description

A fine quality and very hard to find display specimen from Southern Illinois featuring tapered, gemmy, golden colored crystals of Calcite measuring up to 4.4 cm long, which have a light coating of soft white Paralstonite, an incredibly rare trigonal polymorph of Alstonite and Barytocalcite. The Minerva #1 Mine is the type locality for Paralstonite, and it's only been found in 9 or 10 world localities. I've only seen one other specimen of this material from the Minerva #1 Mine, so if you collect minerals from Southern Illinois, or you collect rarities from the type locality, this is a fine quality and certainly incredibly hard to get piece from this prolific and defunct mine.
From the collection of William ("Bill") (1927-2006) and Anne (1928-2021) Cook of Cleveland, Ohio (#9764) with a label from Ross Lillie stating is was collected in September of 1995. Jamison K. Brizendine mentions on a specimen posted to mindat.org that his specimen was "collected during the "pillar-robbing" phase of the Minerva #1 Mine, just prior to its eventual closure at the end of 1995", so this piece was found during that same period of mining.
Bill and Anne Cook 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.