Pyrite on Quartz (ex Richard A. Kosnar Collection)

Item Description

The Sweet Home Mine is best known for producing arguably the finest Rhodochrosite crystals in the world, but one thing that it does not get credit for is the quality of its sulfides. We've seen some of the finest crystals of species like Tetrahedrite from any mine in Colorado come from this mine, but we don't see a lot of great Pyrites. This small cabinet hosts several sharp, lustrous, metallic, soft golden colored, striated cubes of Pyrite measuring up to 1.8 cm associated with thin "needle" Quartz and Sphalerite. Looking closely, there are some areas where the Sphalerite is epitaxially growing directly on the Pyrite crystals. Most of the crystals are in excellent shape, with only tiny blemishes I can see. There is a spot on the top right portion of the display side of the piece that might look broken at first glance, but when I looked at it with a loupe, there are some small crystals faces to be seen, so it's not completely damaged. A really cool old time specimen of this hard to find material from the Sweet Home. Valued at $500. This piece was part of the collection of Richard A. Kosnar, the namesake for the species Kosnarite, who operated the Sweet Home Mine in the 1970s specifically to collect specimens. This particular piece was personally collected in 1978 by Dave Bergman (Rich Kosnar's father-in-law), who is a Colorado miner. Dave was the foreman and primary person in charge of recovering specimens at the Sweet Home Mine for Rich years ago. See Dave's photo mining at the Sweet Home on page 58 of Peter Bancroft's book "Gem and Crystal Treasures".