Plumbogummite ps. Pyromorphite

Item Description

Plumbogummite from any location used to be rare and valuable, even in grungy small bits. It was one of the rarest of collectible lead minerals, from England in particular. And then, in 2010-ish, China came to bat and started trickling a hint of what was to come, later a flood of these fine specimens in 2011-2013. The Yangshuo Mine (LaoHuan as some call it now) produced probably a thousand fine specimens of shockingly large plumbogummite and several thousand lesser specimens, for a few years before it ended. However, this will always be remembered as the most important style, and the rarest in undamaged aesthetic specimens. These large crystals (here, to 5 cm) are mostly complete replacements of original green pyromorphite. This probably occurred at the time they were forming, in the first place, rather than slowly over aeons. Some small amount of green pyro remains at the base, and in the cores of the larger crystals. This is a particularly aesthetic specimen, complete all round, with a sharp splaying look for the size that is uncommon (we should know - we were the first to bring them to market in Tucson 2011!). For the size, we rate this as one of the most elegant in size class. Such specimens can still be seen at shows today with some of the larger show dealers, generally priced in the $4000-6000 range for specimens of quality in this size. However, this one has special aesthetics!