Pyrite (excellent classic locality specimen)

Item Description

While Pyrite is by no means a rare minerals, fine specimens such as this from the prestigious Oppu Mine are incredibly hard to find. This is certainly the largest, and I would say finest Pyrite that we've had to offer from this famous old locality which dates back to the 1600s. This piece is an impressive large cabinet display specimen loaded with dozens of textbook cubic crystals showing razor-sharp faces and reflective luster, measuring up to 8 mm on edge, intermixed with dozens of white prismatic Quartz crystals, sitting on a plate of massive Pyrite and brassy Chalcopyrite matrix. The vast majority of the Pyrites are undamaged. A truly striking and fine quality example of this fairly hard to find material from this renowned mine, which is arguably most famous for its beautiful Rhodochrosite specimens. George purchased this specimen in 1997 from Tsukasa Kikuchi at his shop in Toshima, Tokyo.
Valued $3,000-$4,000.
Ex George Loud Collection No. 3009; 3911 JA.2. 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