Pyrite Sun ex Jack Halpern Collection

Item Description

These beautiful, lustrous Pyrite "suns" formed between an ancient bed of shale and clay near Sparta, Illinois. This floater is complete all-around, front and back, with the classic radial appearance that is so attractive and interesting. These Pyrite Suns are known for their intriguing form and great luster, which manifests itself as a flashy, chatoyant shimmer. This great, small cabinet sized disc even has a distinctive red coloration to the patina, which puts it head and shoulders above many of the fine specimens from Sparta. Good specimens from this unusual occurrence have always been highly desirable and although once inexpensive, they are now fairly rare in quality. I actually had this one in my childhood collection in Ohio in the 1980s (purchased directly from the source, Mike New at the Bloomington Indiana show in 1988 or 1989), and sold it to Jack in the later 1990s. There are numerous references to Jack and his collection in print, but perhaps a good tour of the collection and its history will help give perspective on just how good, and important, this collection is: https://www.irocks.com/the-jac...