Quartz (scepters) (rare locality)

Item Description

The Patch Mine near Central City in Colorado is probably best-known to mineral collectors for its attractive Quartz specimens, but they are few and far between on the market. For those who don't know, this mine lies in Gilpin County, which is the site of the first discovery of Gold in Colorado, and the Patch Mine (often referred to as the Glory Hole Mine) is a still standing landmark just southwest of Central City. This piece is filled with classic, sharp, lustrous, water-clear, colorless Quartz crystals up to 9 mm on matrix. Several of the Quartz crystals feature distinct scepter habits, which have a very slight smoky quality, which is typical for this material. No major damage that I can see. Colorado collectors will tell you that obtaining specimens from Gilpin County is very difficult because the vast majority of the mining took place before WWII and good quality pieces simply are not around. A nice display specimen of this beloved material. A rare Colorado locality specimen.
From the collection of Armon McPherson, a retired physicist, now living in New Mexico. Armon received his PhD from North Carolina State University in 1985, and worked at the laser laboratory at the University of Illinois at Circle Center. In the summer of 1997, Armon moved to the Argonne National Laboratory where he worked at the Advanced Photon Source, then the world’s largest synchrotron facility dedicated as an x-ray source. In 2001, he was asked to join a team at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque to conduct laser research for DARPA. Finally, staying within Sandia, he transferred to the Z Facility, the world’s most powerful x-ray facility. He retired in the spring of 2017. Armon's introduction to mineral collecting came in the 1980s during graduate school when he attended his first mineral show. He took up the hobby of faceting gems, and focused his early collection on gem crystals, and later transitioned into collecting non-gem species. We are proud to offer specimens from his worldwide mineral collection here for you.