Quartz var: Smoky (rare locality specimen)

Item Description

This is a notably rare locality specimen labeled as coming from the Western Slope of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in Taos County, New Mexico. It's the only one of its kind that we've seen. Although it's labeled as Smoky Quartz, it's rather saturated in hue, and could be called "Morion" as it's incredibly dark, and virtually opaque when backlit. It's a rather stout crystal, thick and hefty, but still well-formed, euhedral and complete all around. The underside of the piece might appear to be incomplete, but it's actually crystallized, making this piece close to being a "floater", and I would definitely say it's doubly-terminated, as there are a handful of terminated faces when you look closely. Smaller partial Smoky Quartz crystals and cream-colored Feldspar can be seen on the lower portion of the piece, indicating that it came from a pegmatite environment. A really cool display specimen that it certainly unlike any other Smoky Quartz I can remember having to offer from New Mexico. It's difficult to put a fair market value on a piece like this, but it's definitely something worthwhile to add to any worldwide Quartz suite or a collection of minerals from New Mexico. Specimen weight is 601 grams.
Ex Dave Stoudt Collection.