Rhodochrosite ex Howard Belsky Coll.

Item Description

Gemmy and lustrous, rose-red, rhodochrosite scalenohedrons cover all sides of this striking thumbnail from a rare and old locality, the Moanda Manganese Mine in Gabon. The two largest crystals are both 1.1 cm and they are the only doubly terminated crystals on the knob of massive manganite ore. Displayed correctly the broken crystals are nearly all out of sight. This material came out in the 1970s and early 1980s and no more have been found. For the location this is an excellent quality specimen in this size range. Ex Howard Belsky Collection. Howard started as a mineral dealer at age 13 in 1972, became a sophisticated dealer and died tragically at age 28 in 1987. His collection recently became available to us through his family.